Love and Magic
by obscenite de J
Summary: Vita Belleau was a normal girl until one day she finds herself entangled in a new, magical and perilous world. A social anomally in the world of magic, Vita tries to find a way out of the important, key position she plays. Stuck between two roads, Vita finds herself in a precarious deadlock between a pair of cursed twins and darkness incarnate.
1. Chapter 1

"Hello, wake up…" A voice called out to her and she could feel someone slapping her face lightly.

She opened her eyes to see a man's face hovering above hers. Startled, she tried to move, but the man held her. She looked around and realized she had been sleeping on this bed. She didn't recognize it. She didn't recognize anything.

"Whoa, now. Calm down. Everything is just fine." The man said to her in a soothing manner.

"Is she finally awake?" A woman with long, curly blonde hair asked and walked near the bed. "So, now we can have fun?"

She watched the woman caress the man's hair in a flirty way. She was confused. What was going? Where was she? Who…was she? She sat completely still for a moment as she realized she could not remember anything.

"Now, now Yvette. I have some formalities to take care of with her just like I had to do with you when you woke up." The man said in a playfully chastising tone.

She looked at the man who was still holding her to calm her. He had short, pale yellow hair with icy blue eyes. She tried to remember something about him, and instantly, she felt a shooting pain in her temple. She flinched in pain and grabbed her head with one of her hands.

"What's this? Are you ok?" The man asked in a nonchalant tone.

"My head is killing me." She said in whispered voice.

She sat still again. So, that was what she sounded like. That was the sound of her voice.

"Now, now." The man said and lifted her head by placing his hand under her chin. "You're ok!"

She felt annoyed that he was telling her she was ok when he actually had no idea. Her head felt foggy and uncomfortable. She moved his hand away from her face and felt herself glaring at him.

"What is going on here?" She asked in anger and confusion.

The man recoiled a bit. His blue eyes sparkled with curiosity and surprise. He put his hand to his chin and looked at her for a while. He seemed to be thinking about something.

"Now, now. It's ok dear." He said and took her hand in his. "Why don't you tell me your name?"

She was getting tired of hearing him say "now, now" like he was talking to a pet. She saw him looking at her expectantly and she tried to remember her name. Her head felt a little foggy again and she felt like she was going to pass out. She grabbed her forehead again.

"It's ok honey. You are allowed to remember your name." He said.

Instantly, the fog cleared in her mind and she clearly remembered her name: Vita Belleau. She remembered her name! She felt excited, but she was weary. It seemed as though the man's permission was the reason she was allowed to remember.

"Well…" The man said impatiently and folded his arms.

"My name…" Vita began, "is Vita B-"

"Ok! Vita is such a wonderful name!" The man said cutting her off.

"You don't want my last name?" She asked in confusion.

"Nope!" The man said cheerfully. "For what I am using you for, your first name is all I need!"

Vita stared at the man and felt more confusion and anger and mistrust surging through her. She was not sure what to think about what was going on, but she did not feel right.

"My name is Quincy!" The man said cheerfully and he leaned forward towards Vita and winked. "I have no doubt you will need to know that information for later."

As he leaned forward, two strands of fabric with feathers on the bottoms came forward from behind Quincy's left ear. They appeared to be connected to the bottom of his hairline like a sort of hair accessory or lone weave strands. Vita reached forward and touched them. When she touched the feathery strands, a sharp pain shot through her head. She closed her head and there was complete silence.

"Hey, look at the guy with the feather hair things!" A woman's voice echoed in her head.

"Oooo, he is hot!" A second woman's voice replied. "What do you think Vita?"

"I guess he is alright. He seems kind of suspicious though. He looks like he is checking everyone at the con out."

In the darkness Vita heard these voices and was shocked to hear her own. It was some sort of conversation between her and…who? Two women, but who were they? They had to be people she knew since the one called her by name. They must be her friends? And what was a con?

"V-V-Viiiittaaaa." A voice called through the darkness and shattered the memory.

Vita realized it was Quincy's voice. She felt even more annoyance at him since he broke her from her memory. The only bit of memory she had aside from her name.

She opened her eyes to find herself in Quincy's arms. She recoiled quickly and moved away from him. This movement caused her long, straight brown hair to fly about her. She looked at her hair and moved her hands to feel it.

'So, I have brown hair.' She thought to herself.

"Whoa there. Are you ok now? You passed out there for a second." Quincy said and came towards Vita.

Vita tried to move away from Quincy, but her grabbed her hand.

"Calm down and don't move." He said in a different tone than he had been using.

Vita felt herself calm down and she found she couldn't move. She felt a little panicked, but she felt her body try to calm down. She was a mess of confusion. She looked at Quincy in a questioning manner.

Quincy came closer to Vita and put his hand under her chin and looked into her eyes again. He seemed to be trying to examine something. Vita sat uncontrollably still as he looked into her eyes.

An annoyed sigh came from Yvette who had sat down on a nearby chair.

Vita and Quincy both looked at her when she sighed and Quincy just laughed and looked her Yvette playfully. They had a brief moment of flirty looks and then, Quincy turned his attention back to Vita.

"Well, sometimes the magic spells do cause strange things to happen to you humans." Quincy said and got up. "You seem to be fine physically which is fine to me since that's what I'll be using you for."

Vita watched Quincy walk over to Yvette and lean on her seductively. Her eyes widened when she realized what they were there for. She and Yvette were nothing more than pleasure tools to him. Vita assumed Quincy must have done something to both of them.

'He must have done something to make us listen to him…to make us obedient.' Vita thought to herself.

Suddenly, she realized what Quincy had just said.

'Magic?' Vita thought and stared at Quincy's back with wide eyed shock. 'So, he is using magic to control us? What….what is going on?'

Vita's confusion was rising and made her panic overpower the calm. She felt something 'break' in her and her normal, genuine emotions were back. She moved her hand to her chest and she realized she could move freely as well. She felt pleased that whatever Quincy had done had passed. She was happy she was able to break Quincy's spell, but she was worried she wouldn't be able to do it again.

She looked over at Quincy and Yvette who were now making out on the chair. Vita looked away in disgust at the improper behavior. She wondered why Yvette's attitude was different than her own.

'Maybe Quincy put a spell on Yvette to make her more obedient?' Vita thought to herself.

"Vita you are allowed to move now." Quincy said suddenly.

Vita was startled at his interruption to her thoughts. She looked over and saw him moving towards the door.

"Yvette, help Vita change into her new clothes, okay?" Quincy said and smiled sweetly at Yvette.

Yvette looked at Quincy with a pouty face and Quincy just laughed and walked towards her.

"Don't worry! Soon, we will all be having all sorts of fun!" Quincy said cheerfully and suggestively. "But, for now, be a good girl and help Vita with her outfit."

"Okay." Yvette said with a playful reluctance.

"That a girl!" Quincy said and turned to leave again. "When you two are done, come out into the next room."

"Okay!" Yvette responded happily.

Vita watched Quincy walk out of the room and close the door. She noticed he didn't lock the door behind him. She assumed that meant he was not worried they would run away. Vita turned her attention to Yvette who had gone into the closet and pulled out a giant mound of purple gossamer and lace. Vita looked at Yvette questioningly.

"It's cute! It will match mine, but yours is purple and mine is red!" Yvette said cheerfully.

Vita looked at Yvette's outfit for the first time since she had woken up. She was repulsed by it instantly. The top was nothing more than a bra with lace and other decorations and the bottoms appeared to be two pieces: underwear and a highly elaborately decorated see through skirt. She knew Yvette was expecting her to say something in response to seeing her outfit.

"They're like…harem outfits…" Vita whispered finally and looked at Yvette questioningly.

"I suppose they are!" Yvette responded cheerfully and looked at her own outfit while twirling around once.

Vita did not know how to handle Yvette. She was sure they were both in the same problem, but Yvette did not seem to notice. She seemed oblivious to everything.

"Yvette," Vita began, "Do you remember anything?"

Startled, Yvette looked at Vita like she was in trouble. She stood in silence for a while, but then she just smiled tiredly.

"We don't need to remember anything!" Yvette said. "Why don't we get you in these clothes?"

Vita could tell something strange was holding Yvette and controlling her thoughts and actions. She didn't understand what was going on or remember what had happened, but she knew she wanted to get away. She also wanted to help Yvette.

"Come on!" Yvette said cheerfully. "Put this on!"

Vita looked at the polka-dotted pajama pants and plain yellow shirt she was wearing and then, she looked at the ridiculous garb she was expected to wear. She picked a piece of the outfit and looked at it with a grimace. As she did this, Vita noticed the green nail polish on her finger nails.

She set the garb down and looked at her nails strangely. She felt her head going foggy again and a sharp pain shoot through her temple. This time, Vita saw two other people, and she and the two were painting their nails.

"I really don't understand why we are painting our nails, Shelly." Vita heard herself say in the memory. "The costume gloves are just going to cover the nails."

"Oh Vita! It is just for fun!" Shelly, the girl who spoke second in the first memory said excitedly.

"Well, you know they do have their nails painted before they transform into scouts though!" The first voice said.

"Jeesh Emily, why do you have to get technical?" Shelly responded. "Well, anyways, I am so excited for this anime convention!"

'Anime…convention?' Vita thought to herself as she watched her memory.

When she thought this, a large band of memories went flashing through her mind, but none of them made any sense. Vita felt like her head was going to explode.

"V-V-Viiittaaaa…" Quincy's voice broke through the memory and shot her back to the present.

Vita sat up and found herself face to face with Quincy. His blue eyes looked into hers curiously.

"I was wondering what was taking so long and came in to find you passed out on the bed and Yvette trying nervously, but very cutely, to wake you." He said examining Vita.

Quincy sat there thinking for a while, looking at Vita. It was obvious he was becoming suspicious about what was happening to Vita, but he was not sure what to gather about the situation.

"Well, I guess we will relax for a little while. Maybe we will all eat something!" Quincy said in a cheerful matter of fact tone. "You finish getting dressed. Yvette, come with me and we will start making something in the kitchen."

Quincy winked at Yvette and she cheerfully followed him out the door of the room. Vita assumed they were going to be doing something else.

After the two left the room, Vita looked around to try to figure out where she was. She noticed the room was fairly nice and way too clean. It also lacked any sign of personal artifacts. She walked over to the window and pulled the curtains to look outside. It seemed they were on one of the higher floors of the building.

"I wonder if this is a suite in a hotel. Those are always on the upper floors." She said to herself out loud.

She paused and thought to herself about what she just said. She wondered how she knew about suites in hotels. Her head went fuzzy again and she got flashes of images of her setting up a hotel room for Shelly, Emily and herself for the anime convention. The images flashed through quickly and she found herself leaning onto the wall and gasping.

She was remembering a lot more about what had happened, but she still had no idea what was going on now. Through the little flashes of memory, she remembered she and her friends were going to an anime convention. She remembered a little bit about going to different events at the convention with her friends, but the memories got a little fuzzy after that.

She was happy she remembered some things, but it made her nervous. Now, she knew something strange had happened because she wouldn't leave her friends to run off with this Quincy guy. On top of that, she had to worry about the "magic" Quincy had mentioned. Since he was capable of controlling people and making them obedient, Vita knew he was going to be hard to get away from. Also, she needed to find a way to get Yvette to come with her so they could both escape.

A loud noise from beyond the door caused Vita to snap back to reality. She was going to have to play the part and wear that ridiculous outfit if she wanted to trick Quincy into thinking she was going along with his game.

Vita looked out the window again. This time she noticed the surroundings. She noticed that the hotel was not in a big city area. There were a bunch of trees in the distance which looked like they were a forest and in another direction, there appeared to be a fairly large shopping area. Vita didn't recognize the area, but if she knew her surroundings, she figured it would be easier to plan an escape route.

Vita turned to the bed and grabbed the garb which laid there. Taking a deep breath, she changed her clothes and put on the harem outfit. She looked at herself in the mirror and thought about how ridiculous she felt. She thought about how ridiculous the whole situation was and how worried she was dealing with it.

She headed wearily towards the door. She had no idea what would be on the other side of the door or what she might see. There had been a lot of noises coming from the other side of the door. She opened the door slowly and peeked into the next room.

To the right, she saw an area with couches and she could hear the noises coming from a kitchen area beyond the living room area. To her left, Vita was surprised to see the front door of the suite standing unguarded.

She went quickly towards the door, but stopped short. If there was magic involved, she was sure the door would have some sort of spell on it, but maybe it didn't. Quincy could be overconfident that she and Yvette were under his obedience spell and he wouldn't need to put a spell on the door. She found herself standing in front of the door unsure of what she should do.

"Trying to escape?" Quincy's voice asked.

Vita turned around quickly and saw a playful smile on Quincy's face. She was relieved he was smiling, but it was obvious he was expecting her to say something flirty in return.

"Escape? No! Of course not!" Vita said hurriedly. "Why would I want to escape from here?"

"Why indeed!" Quincy said and headed towards Vita.

She tried not to reveal what she was truly thinking and feeling, but she knew it was a dangerous and delicate situation.

"Why don't we head into the kitchen!" Quincy said and put his arm around Vita's shoulders.

"Of course!" Vita tried to say in a cheerful tone.

She looked at Quincy out of the corner of her eye and noticed he didn't seem to be onto her act. She felt a little relieved, but she was going to have to figure something out soon before anything happened which she wouldn't be able to act her way out of.

Quincy brought Vita into the kitchen where Yvette was reading recipes and looking at ingredients. She looked up from the recipes and smiled sweetly at Quincy. Vita felt sorry for Yvette and wondered what she would really be feeling.

There was a bag sitting on the counter and Yvette moved to look in it.

"Oooh no, love!" Quincy said and moved the bag to the end of the counter. "There aren't any ingredients for you in there, just some magic potions."

Vita felt her heart jump with excitement. It was possible there could be a sleeping potion in the bag that she could slip into Quincy's drink.

'How am I going to slip the potion into his drink though?' Vita thought in despair.

"Ok!" Quincy began and clapped his hands. "Why don't we have dinner and then, we will have some real fun!"

"Yay!" Yvette shouted in response.

Vita didn't like what Quincy was seemingly suggesting. However, eating dinner gave Vita the chance to slip something into Quincy's food. She needed to figure out a way to distract him so she could find a sleeping potion and slip it into his food.

"Why don't we make you dinner!" Yvette suggested cheerfully to Quincy.

Yvette's suggestion would create the necessary distraction for Vita to enact her plan!

"Yea! Then, you can relax and we can serve it to you!" Vita echoed in as cheerful a manner as she could muster.

Quincy's face lit up with a large smile.

"Well! I would have to say that is a marvelous idea indeed!" Quincy said. "Alright! Well, I will leave the dinner to you two and I will be relaxing in my room over there."

Vita followed where Quincy was pointing to a door at the farthest end of the suite.

"Okay! We will bring it in to you when it is done!" Yvette said excitedly while clapping her hands.

Quincy nodded, smiled and walked off to the room. He left the door open a crack as he closed it.

Yvette moved swiftly to the recipes and shuffled through them to figure out which one they should make. Vita walked up and looked over her shoulder as she flipped through them. As she looked at the different recipes, Vita wondered which food would be the best to slip a sleeping potion into.

'The sleeping potion!' Vita thought to herself and looked over at the bag.

She wasn't even sure there was one in there or they even existed at all. She walked over to the bag and touched it.

'Quincy must have used something on us to make us fall asleep though, right?' She thought to herself as she touched the bag.

"What are you doing, Vita?" Yvette asked curiously. "Quincy said there aren't any ingredients in that bag."

"I just wanted to move it so it didn't get stuff on it while we are cooking!" Vita lied quickly.

"Oh! That is a good idea!" Yvette said and went back to flipping through the recipes.

Vita grabbed the bag and moved it to the far end of the counter away from all of the food preparation. She took a peek inside while she moved it and was happily relieved when she saw a bunch of bottles which read 'sleeping potion.' Now, she knew the potion existed and was in the bag. Her next move was to pick the best food to hide the potion in. She returned to Yvette's side and looked through the recipes.

"I don't know which one to pick." Yvette said sadly.

Vita looked at the recipes and saw there was one for a beef stew.

"What about that one!" Vita said excitedly.

She figured a stew would make it easy to stir in a sleeping potion liquid since it already contained a fair amount of liquid to it.

"Hm, I don't know. It doesn't seem like a very romantic food." Yvette responded.

Vita wasn't sure how to respond. Yvette had a point that stew was not really a romantic food.

"Well, think about it this way!" Vita bagan eagerly, "We want to be able to get to the fun part quickly, right? Stew is quick to make and quick to eat, so we can get to the fun stuff faster!"

Vita watched Yvette's face light up with surprise and excitement. Again, she wondered how Yvette would really feel about the situation.

"That's a great idea! Let's get started!" Yvette said and started to get all of the food ready.

Vita helped helplessly by grabbing a bit pot and setting it on the stove. They both worked at the ingredients for the stew which were in various parts of the kitchen area. After a few minutes they had everything all set up and the only thing they could do was stir the contents of the stew and wait.

"This is boring." Yvette sighed after they had been cooking the stew for about 30 minutes.

"Well, it is just about done!" Vita responded.

"But, I am bored now." Yvette said in a pouty, obnoxious tone.

Vita hated to use Yvette as a distraction, but she needed time alone in the kitchen so she could slip the potion into Quincy's food.

"I know! Why don't you go keep Quincy company and I will stay out here and get the dish ready to serve!" Vita said and instantly felt guilty.

"That's a wonderful idea!" Yvette said joyously. "Are you sure you don't mind?"

"Oh sure! I am sure there will be lots of fun to be had later!" Vita replied uncomfortably.

"Okay!" Yvette said and pranced off towards Quincy's room.

As soon as she was sure Yvette was not going to come out any time soon, Vita ran to the bag and took out one of the sleeping potions. She was disgusted at how many empty bottles there were, but she didn't have time to spend thinking about that. She served some of the stew in a bowl and got ready to pour the potion in. She paused before she emptied the potion into the bowl. She had no idea how much to use on a person.

'If I put in too much, will it harm him?' She thought to herself.

Some giggling came from inside the room and distracted her from her thoughts. She knew she didn't have a choice. She emptied the bottle into the bowl of stew and stirred it in so it wouldn't be noticed. She waited shortly for the stew to cool down so Quincy would be able to eat it instantly. While she waited, she hid the bottle in the back of a drawer in the kitchen and washed her hands just in case the potion got on her hands.

After all of this, she got ready to take the bowl into the room. She paused for a second. She was nervous the whole plan would blow up in her face somehow. She took a deep breath and headed for the room.

She opened the door to find Yvette and Quincy locked in a romantic embrace, but Quincy had heard her come in. He smiled and winked at her.

"Don't worry love. You'll get your time too." He said to Vita. "Now, what have you got there?"

Vita came closer and handed the bowl of stew to Quincy.

"We made stew so we could eat quickly and get to the fun parts!" Yvette said cheerfully and leaned towards Quincy.

"Is that so?" He exclaimed happily. "Well, that is just the best idea I have ever heard!"

The two of them had another flirty moment which made Vita feel awkward.

"Yvette, why don't you go get ours and I will stay in here with Quincy?" Vita suggested.

"But, I don't want to leave." Yvette said with a pouty tone.

Vita wasn't sure how to respond to her. She had not anticipated Yvette not wanting to leave. She sat there for a moment and then, she figured she would use Yvette's pouty tactic in this situation.

"Yea, but you have spent more time with Quincy than I have." Vita replied and was as pouty as she could be.

"Vita has a point, Yvette." Quincy said and sipped some stew. "But you will be coming right back!"

Yvette remained pouty for a little while but then she ran out quickly with a giggle. Vita was happy Yvette left, but now she was alone with the man who had kidnapped them. She was in a perilous situation.

She looked at Quincy and smiled sweetly. She was so nervous she thought her heart was going to explode. She watched Quincy take the spoon and point it towards her.

"Here!" Quincy said with a smile.

Vita froze. She had not predicted he would offer some of his stew to her. She had to think of something quickly before her act and plan were exposed.

"Oh no! You are going to need all of your strength for all the fun we are going to have!" Vita said eagerly. "Here! Eat it quickly so I can go get you more!"

When Vita said that, she brought the bowl up to Quincy's mouth and tried to angle it to pour into his mouth, but he stopped her.

"This is a very barbaric way to eat." He said with a smirk.

Vita wasn't sure what to do. Without any other option, Vita chose to follow the pouty tactic again which had been working for Yvette, though for different purposes.

"But, we just want to get to the fun as fast as possible." Vita said with a pout and downcast eyes.

"Awww, well how could I say no to that sad face!" Quincy said and put the bowl up to his mouth.

Within a short period of time, he had downed the whole stew and looked at Vita with a cheerful smile. He handed the bowl back to Vita. Instantly, she noticed he started to look drowsy.

"Wow, I am going to lie down for a second. Why don't you go get me some more stew?" Quincy said and was practically passing out.

"Okay…" Vita said wearily.

She got up but moved slowly towards the door. When she got to the door, she turned and looked at the bed Quincy was laying in. He had passed out completely. She went to the kitchen and put the bowl in the sink hurriedly. Now, she had to deal with Yvette.

"What is Quincy doing?" Yvette said as she stood at the counter.

She had been delayed because she was waiting for the stew to cool.

"Oh, he is busy. He said not to bother him." Vita said nervously.

"Oh?" Yvette said sadly.

"But, Yvette, I need you to come with me!" Vita tried to say as cheerfully as possible.

"Where are we going?" Yvette asked in confusion.

"We need to leave here." Vita said bluntly.

Yvette's face changed again like it had when Vita had asked about Yvette's memories.

"No, we can't. We aren't allowed…" Yvette said and recoiled from a pain in her temple.

'Somewhere built into the magic spell, there must be some sort of command against leaving the suite.' Vita thought to herself with annoyance.

Vita was panicked and nervous. She wasn't sure how much time there was going to be for them to get away. She moved quickly and grabbed Yvette by the shoulders.

"You are going to listen to me!" Vita exclaimed in a commanding tone. "You are going to come with me and we are leaving and not coming back! Got it?"

Vita watched something strange happen on Yvette's face. Vita was sure she had gotten herself into trouble by shouting that at Yvette, but she felt better when she heard Quincy's loud snoring coming from the other room. She turned her attention back to Yvette. Yvette could still get her in trouble if she didn't listen to Vita.

"O…ok. When are we leaving?" Yvette responded plainly.

Vita was surprised and overwhelmingly relieved. She had not expected Yvette to respond that way, but she was not going to miss the opportunity.

"We are leaving now." Vita said, grabbed Yvette's hand and walked towards the front door.

Vita nervously stopped in front of the front door of the suite. She was not sure if there would be a spell on the door. She stood there weighing the possibilities for a few minutes.

'The best case scenario is there is no spell on the door, but the worst case is there is one and it alarms Quincy. Right now, he is still sleeping, so even if it alerts him, he will be asleep for it and won't notice until he wakes up…' Vita thought to herself.

She moved her free hand towards the door knob. Her hand was shaking nervously.

"Please don't let there be a spell on the door, please don't let there be a spell on the door, please don't let there be a spell on the door." Vita muttered to herself as she put her hand on the door knob and turned it.

She continued to open the door slowly as she stood on edge. She opened the door all the way and moved wearily through the threshold leading Yvette through behind her. Vita breathed a breath of relief as the two stood in the hallway looking back into the suite. They didn't stay there long.

"Run!" Vita said to Yvette and the two took off down the hallway.

They ran to the elevator and pressed the down arrow. Vita was nervous and twitchy the whole time they waited for the elevator to come. She was relieved when it came and the two of them got onto it. Soon, they were in the lobby.

She noticed they were getting strange looks from the people who worked there. Vita was afraid to stay there and talk to the hotel staff because they could be under Quincy's influences. Even if they weren't, Quincy could use a magic spell or something if he woke up and came downstairs. She figured their best bet would be to get as far away from the hotel as possible.

They headed out the front door and stood on the main entrance side walk. Vita breathed in panted breaths as she tried to figure out what to do. Their best bet would be to separate since there was two options of going into the forest or going to the shopping center. She hated to leave Yvette, though. She figured the forest would be the best bet to get as far away as possible because there would be a lot of hiding places and a person's normal response would be to go to an area packed with other people when they are looking for help. She anticipated Quincy would search the shopping center before the forest. She would send Yvette to the forest so Yvette had a better chance of getting away.

"Yvette, listen to me." Vita commanded while panting. "You are going to run into the woods and keep running until you are very, very, very, very, very far away from here. Do you understand?"

Yvette nodded without words. She was slightly out of breath from running as well. Though, after Vita gave the order, Yvette ran quickly into the woods and was soon out of sight.

Vita looked around nervously to make sure no one had seen anything. She started to run towards the shopping center but she stopped short. It would take her forever to get there if she ran. She risked Quincy catching up to her if she ran. She looked around her and saw she was in the parking lot of the hotel. She saw a couple loading their car and talking about things.

"Well, do you want to stop at that mall up the road and get something to eat?" The woman said to the man she was with.

"Yea, that sounds good. We have a few more bags in the room. I am just going to leave the trunk open and I can throw the bags in when I come back out." The man replied.

"Ok, I will go get us checked out then." The woman replied and the two headed back inside the side door.

Vita stood there for a moment and wondered if she would get caught if she tried to sneak into the trunk. She looked around and didn't see anyone nearby, so she ran to the car. Quickly, she moved the luggage around and hid herself behind it. She was panting nervously and her heart was beating ferociously inside her chest. She was tired from running, but the stress of the situation was what was causing her heart to race the most.

Something hard was digging into her back and she moved it quickly so she wouldn't be squirming the whole time. She held the object in her hand. It was a flashlight. She decided to hold onto the object because in a dark trunk, a light would be helpful.

She heard the side door open and covered her mouth so the man wouldn't hear her. She closed her eyes and began hoping her plan was going to work.

"Keep me hidden, keep me hidden…" she whispered to herself over and over again from her hidden position.

The sound of heavy treads came towards the car and around the side. Her heart skipped a beat as each tread scraped the pavement. She stayed very still and waited anxiously to see how the moment was going to play itself out. She clenched her eyes tightly as she heard the treads come around to the back of the car.


	2. Chapter 2

Vita was completely still in the trunk of the car as the footsteps came around the back of the car. Her only wish at this point was to not be discovered by anyone. Through the suitcases, she could see the man come around the back of the car and throw some bags into the back. She felt slightly more at ease seeing the man there instead of Quincy. The man quickly closed the trunk door and got into the car.

After the door was closed, Vita was engulfed in darkness. She panicked for a moment because she had not thought about what she would do after she was safely hidden in the trunk. She felt the car moving. She realized she was still clenching the flashlight she had been laying on and she turned it on. After moving some bags, she looked at the trunk door. Literally, she breathed a sigh of relief when she saw there was a safety release on the inside of the trunk for it to be opened from the inside.

The car stopped and in a panic, Vita shut off the flashlight quickly. She heard some muffled voices and realized the man had stopped to pick up the woman from the front of the hotel. She relaxed when the car started moving again. As she lay in the back, she began to formulate what she would do when the couple stopped at the mall. She would have to wait for a little bit to make sure the people did not come back and see her getting out of their trunk, and then, she would run into the mall and find a mall cop station. Vita figured the cops there would be able to help her.

As she thought this, she realized the cops, and everyone for that matter, were going to look at her like she was crazy because of the revealing, crazy outfit she was wearing. She looked at the suitcases in the trunk with her. She hated to steal from the people who were already unknowingly helping her so much, but she knew she did not have much choice.

She began rummaging through some bags with the flashlight as a guide. She found the woman's bag and found a beat up, plain red shirt. She figured the woman would not miss the shirt too much since it looked so old. After she found it, she quickly put on the shirt because she knew she did not have much time before the car arrived at the mall. She put the shirt right over top of the top she was wearing since it was basically a bra. She continued searching for something to wear as pants. She found a few pairs of jeans but when she tried to put the jeans on, it proved to be impossible given the confined space she was in. She knew she was not going to be able to put them on outside without looking peculiar.

'It is already going to be strange enough that I am crawling out of someone's trunk.' She thought to herself with a worried sigh.

She continued to rummage through the bags and happened upon a pair of black athletic shorts. They were stretchy enough that she could put them on in the trunk without much difficulty. She breathed a sigh of relief as she ripped the skirt part of her bottoms off and tucked it into a corner of the trunk, but then, she realized she had forgot something, shoes.

The idea of borrowing someone's shoes slightly bothered Vita as it was, but if the shoes were the wrong size, she wouldn't be able to wear them anyways. Worriedly, she picked through the bags to find some shoes. To her dismay, the woman's shoes were way too small for her. She bit her lower lip as she tried to think of what to do. She knew she would not be able to run around the mall without shoes on. Suddenly, she found a pair of plain, black sandals which she assumed must belong to the man. They were big, but she would be able to fit her feet in them and run into the mall without looking too strange or getting into trouble before she could get help.

As she grabbed the sandals out of the bag, she felt the car lurch slightly and stop. Vita realized they must have arrived at the mall when she heard the engine die down. Again, she heard the muffled sound of voices. She heard the two car doors open and close. Vita wondered how long she should wait before she tried to get out of the trunk. Her heart was racing quickly again. She was so close to getting help, but she just had to overcome this one obstacle and she was home free. She decided to count to 60 ten times. She figured that would be about five to ten minutes and would be enough time for the couple to get away from their car so Vita could sneak out.

"One…two…three…" She whispered to herself in the trunk.

As she counted, it felt like ages had passed. Finally, she had counted through 60 ten times. She turned on the flashlight and moved herself in front of the suitcases. She took a deep breath as she tried to calm down. Slowly, Vita moved to open the trunk. She pulled the switch and the trunk popped open an inch letting in some light from outside. She hoped that no one would be around as she hopped out of the car.

After taking another deep breath, she quickly opened the trunk and jumped out onto the pavement. Breathing heavily and heart racing, she looked wildly around and found there was no one. She was relieved. She closed the trunk and quickly headed for the giant mall. The couple had parked at a restaurant near the mall, so the mall was still pretty far away. Careful to avoid cars, Vita sprinted over to the mall.

She reached the doors and leaned against them for a second to catch her breath. As she stood there, she realized she probably should not sprint in the mall. It would be best if she tried to blend in as much as possible. She walked into the mall and scanned for a map. Towards the middle of the room, there were three big maps in a triangle shape. There were a few people around it, but they found what they were looking for and headed off.

Vita stood in front of the map. She was still breathing heavily even though she tried to suppress it. She scanned over the key chart to find the police icon. She found it and she was looking for its position on the map when she felt like she was being stared at. She panicked a little and looked around trying to appear nonchalant. She looked around quickly to make sure Quincy was not looking at her from somewhere, but to her relief, she did not see him. However, as she turned her eyes back to the map, she noticed a boy was staring at her as he sat at a nearby table.

Vita's green eyes locked onto his brown eyes for a moment. His expression reminded her of a dog watching someone curiously. It did not help that his shaggy brown hair gave him more animalistic characteristics. Looking at him, she estimated he could not be more than thirteen years old. Realizing she was staring, she blushed slightly and looked quickly back to the map.

She located the police station on the map and figured out where she needed to go to get there. Before she left, she looked back at the boy who had been staring at her. He was still there, but he was smiling playfully at her. His smile made her think of a dog wagging its tail.

She realized she did not have time to dwell on these things, and she quickly headed to the police station. Though she knew she should not sprint, she still speed-walked to the police station. It took her what seemed like ages to get there and her heart was racing as she got closer. She began to feel a sense of security.

She walked up to the station and there was only one lady ahead of her who was complaining about some kids who were skateboarding in one of the other sections of the mall. Vita waited as patiently as possible behind the lady as the cop wrote down her complaint and thanked her. The woman walked away with a look of self-righteousness on her features and Vita approached the counter.

"Can I help you, miss?" The cop asked and greeted her with a tired smile.

He was an older cop with a graying moustache. Vita could not tell if he was just really tired or if he just did not care.

"Yes! Yes." Vita started, calming herself a little. "I am in trouble and I need help. There was another girl too. She needs some help."

Vita knew she was talking quickly despite her best efforts to remain calm. She could not help but wonder how Yvette had made out and if she was even okay.

"Whoa, calm down miss. What is going on?" The cop said as he turned to the computer on the counter.

Vita watched as he began to type up the other woman's complaint in the computer system.

"This is going to sound kind of crazy, but this guy, he kidnapped this girl and I and he used-" Vita stopped herself short.

She stood there and watched the man slowly typing in the other complaint. His eyes shifted to her for a second as she paused, but then, he went back to typing up the complaint. Vita knew she could not bring up the magic aspect of the kidnap. The cop would not believe her. She did not even believe her.

"He must have used a sleeping pill on us or something." Vita covered. "I need your help. I need to get away from here before he finds me. And, I need to help the other girl. We split up because I figured it would be our best bet, but I have no idea what happened to her after we split up."

Vita rambled on for a while. She was not even sure she was making sense. She looked at the cop behind the counter. He was just staring at the computer now. She waited for a little bit and thought maybe he was processing what she was saying or he was thinking about what he was typing. She was infuriated that he was not taking her situation seriously.

She was just about to say something to the man when she stopped short. She realized the mall had gotten eerily quiet. She was going to turn around to look when she felt two palms almost touching the sides of her neck.

"Well, you made it pretty far, didn't you?" Quincy's voice said from behind her.

Vita's heart was racing furiously. She was caught. She looked at the cop behind the counter and he was not moving. Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw that no one in the mall was moving. Suddenly, she realized Quincy must have frozen time for the people in the mall except for himself and her.

"It is such a pity." Quincy said with a sigh. "I did not even get to play with you. Oh well, we can't have you running around, so it looks like this is your end."

Vita knew Quincy was going to try to harm her or worse, kill her, in the next moment, so she quickly swung her hand around and slapped Quincy's hands away from her. As she did this, she turned her body and her eyes met Quincy's shocked blue eyes as she turned.

"Don't you touch me!" Vita shouted at Quincy as she stood in front of him clenching her fists.

Vita watched as Quincy looked around the room and back to her in amazement. She could not understand the obvious confusion that he was showing on his features. He continued to stare at her in amazement for a while, and then, he smiled and put his hand to his chin thoughtfully.

"Who would have thought I would stumble upon such a treasure out of the blue?" He said to himself happily.

Vita watched him carefully. She was not sure if she should try to run or try to stay and fight him. She assumed either option was risky and would ultimately come down to trying to fight him off. She kept her fists clenched as he stood smiling and looking at her appraisingly.

"Well, I guess this explains a lot, too." He commented to himself out loud. "I had wondered how you two had managed to get away so easily. And to think I was going to kill you just now!"

"What are you talking about?" Vita shouted at Quincy. "Why won't you leave me alone?"

"You mean you don't know?" Quincy asked and looked at her in confusion.

"Know what?" Vita asked furiously.

"Wow…" Quincy said and whistled. "Well, I was beginning to wonder how I had captured you in the first place, but it appears you do not even know. I guess that explains a lot too."

Vita watched in agitation as Quincy was practically talking to himself in front of her.

"Would you explain what you are talking about!" Vita growled at him.

Quincy just smiled and shook his head. His calm and playful attitude annoyed Vita even further.

"Well, how about this," Quincy started and motioned towards the surrounding area. "Why do you think all of the humans in this room are frozen and you are not?"

"How should I know?" Vita growled back at Quincy. "You used….your magic to freeze everyone except for us or something."

"Hmm, and yet, you had to have noticed how confused I was when you moved?" Quincy said baiting her on.

Vita stood in confusion for a moment. She knew Quincy was trying to point something out to her. She looked around at everyone in the room. They were all frozen and the two of them were not.

"Are you trying to say you meant to freeze me too…but it didn't work?" Vita asked in confusion as she looked around.

"Bingo!" Quincy said in a playful manner.

"Don't act cute!" Vita shouted at Quincy. "I still have no idea what is going on or why you kidnapped me!"

"There, there." Quincy said and moved towards her. "Just come with me and I will explain everything to you."

"You stay away from me!" Vita growled and moved away from him while pointing at him.

Vita noticed that Quincy flinched slightly in anticipation when she pointed at him. She wondered what he was expecting to happen. Her annoyance and confusion were at their breaking points. She could not handle having no idea what was going on.

"Tell me what is going on here!" Vita shouted at Quincy.

"Alright, look," Quincy began, still nonchalant. "Let me put it this way. Humans can be frozen using magic spells, but no matter how hard anyone tries, wizards and witches cannot be frozen by other wizards and witches."

After hearing those words, Vita froze. She stared at Quincy in utter disbelief. She was not sure how to react and she felt as though she might faint.

"I…I'm a witch?" Vita whispered to herself.

"B-I-N-G-O!" Quincy said and stepped closer to Vita. "But, everything is okay! I will be sure to take care of you, my dear!"

Vita tried to back away from Quincy, but the police station counter was behind her and prevented her from moving back. She looked behind her for a moment and turned back to find Quincy standing square in front of her.

"Don't worry." Quincy replied in a soothing manner. "I will take really great care of you."

After everything that had happened, Vita was not sure what to think. Her heart was racing a mile a minute and her mind was going in a million directions at once. However, her thoughts were broken when she saw a flash of light come from behind Quincy.

"Look out!" She said and instinctively pushed Quincy aside.

Everything around her seemed to go in slow motion. She watched Quincy's shocked and horrified face as he went flying to the side. In front of her, she saw the yellow flash heading straight for her. She closed her eyes tightly and braced herself for whatever was going to hit her.

Upon impact, she felt a shattering sensation on her skin and gasped in pain. The attack had hit her upper left arm and caused her fall to the ground in pain. She could feel that there was something strange about the attack. It did not hurt nearly as much as she had expected, but she had expected it to kill her. She could feel a strange feeling like a liquid slowing pulsing from the wound but from the inside. She looked at her left arm and saw where the point of impact was. The attack had left a small star shape wound on her arm. She watched the wound and realized there were small bits of liquid coming from the point of impact and slowly trying to spread itself in her body. She was starting to feel a little dizzy and grabbed her head with her hand.

"What the hell have you done, you moron?" Quincy's voice resounded angrily in the background.

Vita lifted her gaze to Quincy who was kneeling on the floor and looked ready to attack. She followed his gaze to the person who had attacked her. She wanted to scream. She looked at Quincy and looked at the person who had attacked. Their facial features were identical. She rubbed her eyes with her right hand and blinked. It was almost like déjà vu except this Quincy look alike had light shaggy brown hair instead of Quincy's short yellow hair. This man stood there staring at her in amazement just like Quincy did when he first found her at the mall.

"Kael, you moron!" Quincy shouted and got up on his feet.

"Well, look at this treasure." Kael said calmly to himself while he ignored Quincy and looked at Vita with his hand on his chin like Quincy had.

Vita felt sick to her stomach. She could not even handle one Quincy, let alone two. She looked at the two of them back and forth. She assumed they must be twin brothers. The resemblance and the piercing blues eyes were too much.

"I am talking to you! Pay attention you buffoon!" Quincy said in a tantrum like manner and fired a red blaze of light at Quincy after motioning his hands strangely.

Vita watched the red blaze fly towards Kael who was still looking at her. At the last moment, Kael moved an inch to the left and avoided the attack. He acted as though it had never even occurred as he continued to stare at Vita.

"Alright, that is it, show off! I am going to kill you and take my woman and live happily ever after!" Quincy hissed at Kael in annoyance.

Vita had wanted to rebut Quincy's apparent claim of her, but the hit she took was taking its toll on her. She was starting to feel more and more dizzy and nauseous and her breathing was starting to become labored. Her body felt strangely tired like she had run a marathon, but the marathon had run her over.

"I think you had better reconsider that." Kael said as he smirked at Quincy.

"What game are you playing?" Quincy replied.

"I was aiming my attack at killing you off." Kael replied and pointed to Vita. "That was not just any attack, brother."

Quincy turned to look at Vita for a moment and his eyes widened. Vita looked at her own wound and noticed the liquid from the attack was still trying to spread itself on her arm slowly.

"You hit her with a poisonous attack?" Quincy replied in dismay.

"Well, I was trying to hit you." Kael replied calmly. "Of course, I have the antidote for the attack since I made it, but if you took her, you would not have enough time to research the poison and cure it before she died."

"You bastard…" Quincy hissed and clenched his fists.

"If you leave peacefully now, I may just let you live since I will be distracted by taking 'your' woman." Kael responded mockingly.

"That is enough!" Vita interjected into their squabble. "I would like to point it out right now that I belong to no one, you pompous, magical jerks!"

The two looked at Vita in surprise. There was a moment of stunned silence as the two brothers stared at Vita again in unison. Vita felt as though she was the only one who had not noticed the elephant in the room. She looked back and forth between the two of them. It seemed like they were looking at her arm. Suddenly, she realized she was not feeling as sick as she had been earlier, though she was still fairly tired. She looked at the wound on her arm. Where the spindles of the liquid had been from the attack, there were now golden layers of light shining through and eliminating the wound. She watched in surprise as the golden light worked its way towards the source of the attack.

"It is…healing me?" Vita whispered out loud in disbelief.

"Ha! Where is your trump card now, brother." Quincy said mockingly to Kael.

"How was I supposed to know she could heal herself, you idiot!" Kael hissed back at Quincy's mocking gestures. "You were just as surprised as I was, you idiot."

"How dare you call me an idiot!" Quincy replied angrily.

"Well, a fool is a fool is a fool, fool!" Kael said mockingly.

Vita watched in awkward confusion as the two of them spat insults and witty retorts back and forth. Even though they were fighting and mocking each other, she felt a strange playful subtext which confused her. Suddenly, she realized that now would be her chance to try to run away. Vita looked at her arm and saw it was completely healed. She was not sure how it happened, but she felt back to normal aside from her slight fatigue. She looked around her and noticed there was a set of doors to the outside nearby. She hoped the two would be too distracted to notice her trying to make a break for it.

She got up quickly and ran towards the doors, but she did not have a chance in the world of escaping. In an instant, Quincy and Kael had both sent attacks in her direction. She thought they were aiming for her and missed. She realized both attacks were meant for the doors when she grabbed the door handles. Not only were the doors suddenly locked, but the doors also shocked Vita when she tried to open them. The shock was not too painful, but the surprise caused her to fall backwards onto her butt.

"Ooo a slight electric shock? Nice addition…" Quincy commented on the shock spell which Kael had sent to put on the door.

"Oh well, thank you." Kael responded. "I thought that way it would prevent her from trying to open other doors as well for fear of getting shocked."

"Ooooo, very well thought out!" Quincy praised and nodded.

Vita looked at the two in utter disbelief.

"What the heck is wrong with you two?" Vita shouted at them. "You can't just go around zapping people through doors! And how can you go from fighting and throwing insults at each other to praising each other? And weren't you trying to kill him to start with?"

Vita watched in annoyance as the two of them looked at each for a moment and then smiled at her.

"One can always appreciate a good idea!" Quincy responded in a matter of fact way which avoided most of the major questions.

"And we don't really want to kill each other. We have to kill each other." Kael commented.

"You have to kill each other?" Vita asked in confusion.

"That is neither here nor there. What is going on right now is one of us is going to kill the other and take you!" Quincy replied with a cheerful smile.

"How can you be so cheerful about this? You really want to kill your brother?" Vita asked in sad confusion, her green eyes looking sympathetically at the two brothers.

The two brothers looked at each other seriously and there was a long pause before anyone said anything.

"No, we really don't want to." Quincy responded seriously. "But, we have to do it."

Vita was surprised at Quincy's serious response, but she was annoyed with their nonchalant way of dealing with this issue. She was annoyed and confused with everything which had been going on around her for the past few hours. Vita got up quickly and walked towards the both of them in annoyance. She stood halfway in between the two of them.

"I really do not get you two. He just said he didn't want to kill you and you just said you didn't want to kill him, then don't!" Vita said, annoyed.

The two brothers stared at each other in serious silence. Vita had no idea what was going on. She was so tired of all of this nonsense.

"It is because they are cursed." A matter of fact voice responded from behind her.

She turned around to see the shaggy haired boy who had been staring at her earlier standing behind her. Instantly, she realized he was moving while everyone else was frozen.

"You're a wizard too?" Vita asked tiredly.

"Yep!" The boy replied cheerfully. "Name's Hyle! I thought there was something strange about you earlier and boy was I spot on!"

"Hm? What do you mean?" Vita asked in confusion.

"Well, you're a witch." Hyle replied with happy and matter of fact tone.

"Y-yeah…" Vita responded hesitantly. She still was not sure what she thought of the whole situation.

"You still don't get it?" Hyle asked in confusion. "You have to know?"

"Know what?" Vita asked in even more confusion.

"Hyle, she doesn't know." Quincy cut in. "She doesn't know anything about the magical world. She was raised completely engulfed in the human world."

Vita looked at Quincy while he was talking and then back to Hyle, who was staring at her in playful surprise. Vita was slightly surprised the three guys appeared to know each other, but she assumed it was due to the fact they were all magical.

"Wooowww, you were raised completely by humans?" Hyle responded with curiosity.

Hyle started to come closer to Vita, but Quincy and Kael both made menacing motions which caused him to stop in his tracks. Awkward tensions filled the room at the three-way standoff.

"Wait, so Hyle was it?" Vita interjected into the awkward tension.

"Yep! That's my name!" Hyle responded with a playful grin.

Vita appraised Hyle's nonchalant playfulness as genuine which created a slight sense of trust.

"Hyle, what is it I should know?" Vita asked.

"Hmm, well…" Hyle began playfully. "I will only tell you if you tell me your name."

"Oh, I'm sorry." Vita said surprised. "My name is Vita."

She realized she had been so absorbed in everything she forgot to introduce herself.

'Though, given the circumstances, I don't even know that common courtesies apply.' Vita thought to herself through her massive confusion.

"Wow! That's such a pretty name!" Hyle exclaimed with a big smile.

"Thank you." Vita replied with a slight laugh at Hyle's response.

"Stop flirting with her, boy." Quincy interjected degradingly.

"You're just jealous you did not get her to laugh first." Kael interrupted mockingly.

"Why are siding with him?" Quincy replied to Kael.

"Well, it is true." Kael said calmly.

"I could get her to laugh if I wanted to." Quincy responded.

"Well, I suppose." Kael responded with a smirk. "You are a clown after all."

"Ooo, why you!" Quincy shouted at Kael.

"Anyways…" Hyle said breaking into the fight. "Vita, so you don't know anything about the magical world?"

"No…Until a few hours ago, I had no idea one even existed…" Vita said with an exasperated sigh. "Is there something I need to know in particular?"

"Well, it probably would have helped if you had known from the beginning." Hyle said sympathetically. "You see, there are not many females in our world."

Vita looked around the mall confusedly.

"There are a lot of women in just this mall though…" Vita commented.

There was a collective laugh from the three wizards.

"A wizard and a human? That doesn't raise any red flags for you just thinking about it?" Kael commented and raised an eyebrow.

"Is that not allowed or something?" Vita asked in confusion and annoyance.

She was annoyed that they treated her like she was a moron or a child because she did not know anything about the magical world.

"Well, it is allowed, but it is dumb on the part of a wizard." Quincy responded. "You see, a human-wizard hybrid dilutes the magic abilities of the children."

"Oh? So wizards can't be with humans because it will create weak children…" Vita started confused. "Well, why is there a shortage of witches?..."

Vita looked from each of the three guys waiting for an answer. She watched as the three of them looked at her for a long time without answering.

"No one knows the answer to that question." A deep voice responded suddenly.

An intense chill swept the room. The hair on Vita's arms stood on end upon the entrance of this unknown person. She turned to face where the voice had come from, between the positions of Quincy and Kael. Upon seeing the person, Vita felt an unreasonable fear rise in her. Her eyes widened as she took in the sight of this person.

From what Vita could tell, this dark person was a male. He was covered in a dark gray armor with various spirals and markings engraved into the hard metal. His face was covered by a frightening helmet which was made of the same dark gray metal as the rest of the suit. At the top of the helmet, there was a tail of long, dark black hair trailing down to the upper back of the person. Vita assumed the hair was a decorative ornament like those seen on Roman generals' helmets to indicate a high position. Vita could not make out any discernable features about this man except his dark piercing eyes which peered through the eyelets of the helmet. The whole body of this man was encompassed in clouds of darkness which induced fear in all of the on lookers.

"The Black Knight!" Quincy, Kael and Hyle resounded in unison.

Vita could tell by the expression on the three guys that this Black Knight was serious trouble. She wanted to scream out of pure helplessness. Each time she thought things could not get worse, they did. Part of her wanted to just give up but the other part wanted to fight off this horrible nightmare.

Two flashes quickly maneuvered in front her and she panicked. She was slightly relieved when she saw Quincy and Kael standing in front of her in protective positions. The two glared at each other for a moment and were afraid of what the other would do, but this passed quickly.

"Well, I guess we should put our differences aside for now and get rid of this party crasher." Quincy said in good cheer.

"Pfft, like I would need your help to take someone down." Kael responded with a smirk. "But since you're here…"

"Tsh, jerk." Quincy said with his own smirk in response.

"Wait a minute!" Vita said impulsively and grabbed each of their arms with her hands to stop them. "Y-you can't fight him."

She was scared. It was uncontrollable. No matter how much she tried, she only felt this immobilizing sensation holding her body. She knew the others could see her fear. Though, she could tell the others were scared as well.

Quincy and Kael looked at Vita in surprise and then, they looked at each other in surprise. Vita had no idea what was going on. It seemed as though she had committed some sort of social oddity.

"Don't worry!" Quincy said in his overly flamboyant way. "I will take this guy out and then, we can leave and live happily ever after!"

"Except, he's telling my story." Kael interjected smugly.

"Yea, you wish!" Quincy said and shook his fist at Kael.

Watching the two brothers put Vita more at ease for some reason. She felt they would be able to protect her from this engulfing darkness.

"You two certainly are brothers." Vita said with a laugh.

The two stopped and stared at her again like she had done something odd. She figured they thought it was weird she was laughing in the middle of this dire situation. She blushed slightly as the two kept staring at her. In response the two, smiled at her with the same playful grin.

"Move out of the way and let me take the girl." The Black Knight interrupted.

"Yea, like that is going to happen!" Quincy and Kael shouted.

Quincy's response was more flamboyant than Kael's calm response, but it amused Vita that they said the same thing.

"Well," The Black Knight responded. "The cursed brothers are going to die together then? Hm, I suppose that is one way to end a curse."

"Oh, what do you know!" Quincy shouted at the Black Knight.

"We'll take you out and get right back to where we left off." Kael replied.

The two broke away from Vita's grasp and ran over to attack the Black Knight. In the next moment, Vita could only observe flashes of light intertwined with clouds of darkness. She had no idea what to do. Suddenly, she realized she had not seen Hyle jump into the fight. She looked around the mall quickly and did not see him anywhere. She assumed he must have gotten frightened and ran off. She could not blame him. Vita turned her attention back to the current fight. She was surprised Quincy and Kael were working so well together. Everything seemed to be in equal balance between the three parties fighting each other.

'It is a shame they have to fight each other.' She thought to herself. 'They seem like they love each other. I…I wish they weren't cursed.'

For a moment, there was a slight lull in the battle. It seemed as though the battle stopped for an instant but it resumed just as quickly as it had stopped. Vita wondered how things were. She knew that no matter who won, she was going to be in the same predicament, but she did not want to end up engulfed in that maddening darkness.

'I wish I could just go home.' Vita thought to herself and a tear ran down her face.

More than anything, Vita wished she could get away from all of this magical nonsense and go back to her normal life. She could not help but feel helpless and lost.

Above her, a light flash appeared suddenly and vanished. She watched as a little piece of paper wafted down from above her. She was slightly afraid to touch it, but she caught as it fell into her hands. She simply held the paper for a second. She was afraid of what it was or what it could do.

She lifted her gaze and watched the fight. There had not been another lull since the one time earlier in the fight. She looked back at the paper in her hands. Slowly, she unfolded the small piece of paper. She was surprised when she read it.

Read Aloud:

Sed per argentea pennis ageless tempus derivare mihi volo ut ubi.

She did not know what was going on. She stared at the paper in confusion.

'Who would send me this?' She thought to herself as she stood in the mall. 'What does it even mean?...'

As she thought this and stared at the paper, she felt the words shift in her mind and she understood what the words meant.

'On the silver wings through ageless time, shift me to where I want to be?' She thought to herself.

She felt a slight headache as she read the words. She grabbed her head and felt her pulse thumping behind her temple. She was not sure what was going on, but from what she could tell from the words, she could use this piece of paper to go where she wanted to go.

'This must be some sort of spell?' She thought to herself.

Again, she wondered who would send her this piece of paper to help her get away. She wondered if the boy Hyle could have sent it.

'He seemed nice enough and maybe he felt bad for leaving?' She wondered.

She looked back up to the battle in front of her. She felt an overwhelming sense of happiness knowing she could leave all of this behind her. Though, she was still slightly weary of the paper which fell from the sky. Weighing the options quickly, she decided to try her luck with the piece of paper. She took a deep breath and prepared to say the words.

"S-Sed per argentea pennies ageless tempus derivare mihi volo ut ubi." She said aloud slowly.

While she was reading the incantation, a golden light appeared on the floor and above her and quick white flashes started to circle around her. She was slightly afraid, but she continued reading the words aloud. By the end of the chant, she noticed the fighting had ceased and the three fighters were staring in her direction.

In slow motion, she watched as Quincy tried to make a mad dash towards her, but was stopped by the Black Knight who was attacked by Kael in return. She felt extremely tired suddenly and her eyes began to droop. As she closed her eyes, she was engulfed in the golden and white lights. The only thing she could think of was home, but the last images she saw were Quincy and Kael hurrying towards her.


	3. Chapter 3

Vita opened her eyes slowly as she heard the soft sound of birds singing in the background. She rolled to her side and realized she was on a bed. Her eyes opened quickly when she realized she was on her own bed at her own house! She could hardly believe it. She moved her hand to run it along her sheets; she wanted to be sure this all was real. As she moved her arm, she realized that she was in her bed, but she also realized that her body shot waves of pain through her as she moved her left arm.

Exhausted and in pain, Vita laid back onto her back and grabbed her arm. She realized her left arm was the place that had been hit by Kael's attack.

'Kael...and Quincy...and that dark wizard...' Vita thought to herself as she realized they were not around.

To be certain, she got up slowly and painfully and moved through her house. There weren't very many rooms to check so she didn't have to move too much. Her house consisted of two rooms, a bathroom and a large middle room where the living room and kitchen shared open space together. As she walked out of her room, she walked into the living room. She leaned against a chair and was relieved that no one was in her house. She stood there quietly and waited to see if she could hear anyone moving in any of the other parts of the house. She sighed with relief when she didn't hear anyone and collapsed sideways into the chair she was leaning on.

She wasn't sure what she should do. It was impossible that any of the wizards knew where she lived, but she didn't know all of the intricacies of the magical world.

"Hyle must have been the one who helped me..." She murmured to herself as she lay sideways in the chair. "I hope there isn't a way to track where I went through some location spell..."

Vita felt so silly saying that out loud. First of all, she really expected the spells to be named something more elaborate than "sleeping potion" and "location spell." It all lacked creativity, but she supposed it was direct. Most of all, she felt silly because her mind wanted her to try to pretend that it all didn't happen, but the pain in her arm told her otherwise. She had to accept that everything had happened. If she didn't, she put herself in even greater danger.

"Wait..." Vita gasped and sat up slowly. "How long had it all been happening?..."

She looked to the paper calendar on the wall which depicted various Parisian scenes. Though it was across the room, she could still see the large letters reading "ANIME CONVENTION" over the last weekend in the month of July.

"I don't know what day it is today though..." She said to herself and rubbed her head in frustration.

Normally, she would just check her phone to see the date, but then again, _normally_ she wouldn't have to worry about time lapses due to being kidnapped.

She sighed and thought about what would be the next best way to figure out what day it was currently and how long she had been gone. She could go and ask someone, but that seemed weird and given her current pain ratings, it seemed impossible to go out of the house any time soon. She looked around the room and saw the television.

'I could check the t.v. but I feel like it would take forever to get the answers I want now.' She thought to herself and sighed.

Her eyes drifted around the room and they fell upon her school laptop. She slowly and playfully face-palmed herself when she realized she could just check the computer and it would tell her everything and anything she wanted to know.

She rolled off the chair and crawled slowly to her laptop which lay on the floor in front of the small loveseat in the living room. She turned on the computer and laid flat on the floor as she waited for it to boot up. Her stomach growled loudly, which startled her. It made sense that she was hungry because it had probably been at least a few meals since she was able to eat anything. The last food source she was around was the sleeping stew she had made with Yvette to escape from Quincy.

"Yvette!" Vita shouted and sat up quickly.

The quick movements made Vita's body surge in waves of pain and soreness. She grimaced and leaned her back against the nearby couch as she sat on the floor.

"Oh my God, Yvette..." Vita felt awful. "I hope she made it safely home..."

Vita knew it was a complete long shot. She knew that she was even lucky that she was able to get home and she had magical help from another wizard. She thought back to what Quincy was originally going to do; she remembered he had wanted to kill her so she couldn't tell anyone about anything that had happened. That all changed when he found out she was a witch, but Yvette was not a witch. She had succumb to Quincy's obedience spell which proved her species to be human unlike Vita.

"I hope Quincy never found her." Vita thought painfully and sadly. "If he did, she would not have stood a chance..."

Vita's sadness was interrupted by the chiming sounds of her computer turning on. She realized with a start that her computer may be able to give her some information about Yvette. After she had that thought, she also realized that if she found anything on Yvette in the news online, it would not be anything good.

'It's better that I know what happened...I will feel much better if nothing is found about her though...' Vita thought to herself as she began using her computer.

Using her laptop felt so foreign at first. After everything she had gone through, it felt strange to be doing something in her normal house, in her normal life again.

The date in the bottom right corner of the screen answered her first question. It read 12:46 p.m. on August 2. She practically stopped breathing.

"The anime convention was over the weekend, so...I have been gone or something for three or four days. It may have been longer too depending on when Quincy kidnapped me..." She thought to herself and shuttered. "I have spotty memories from the convention, so he must have taken me sometime near the end. The longest period of time I would have been gone would have been five days then."

She sighed and shook her head as she thought about it all. It was all just too much. Her stomach growled again and she realized she should try to eat something and she might get some strength back as well. She got up slowly and walked into the kitchen, leaning on various items as she walked through the house. She opened the cupboard and looked for something quick to eat. Ironically, she saw a can of beef stew sitting on the shelf. Her stomach turned in knots thinking about Quincy and Yvette and all of the other dark events which had occurred.

She grabbed a can of chicken noodle soup without really looking at it. She open the can and emptied the contents into a bowl. She tossed it in the microwave and leaned against the counter. It all felt so normal, but it also felt so wrong considering she did not know if Yvette was fortunate enough to return to her normal life as well.

She shifted her mind to food as the scent of the soup made her mouth water. She wondered for a moment when the last time she actually had eaten anything. It was quite possible that she had gone without food for a few days considering the circumstances. It would definitely explain why her body was weaker than it should have been.

'There could be a magical reason why I am weak too though.' Vita thought to herself.

She had no idea what she had done when she said those words in the mall. She had no idea what using magic did to the body.

She went to the cupboard and grabbed a glass. Going back to her basic instincts, she figured she should drink some water to try to help alleviate some of the cramping her muscles felt. She filled one glass in the sink and drank it swiftly. After the first glass, she quickly realized exactly how thirsty she was. She downed three more glasses of water and leaned over the sink. The act of drinking all of the water made her feel better but she had guzzled them all down so quickly that she was semi out of breath.

The microwave beeped loudly to signify the food was done cooking. Vita walked slowly to the microwave and opened the door. Some steam rolled off of her soup as she pulled it out of the microwave. Her mouth was watering fiercely as she set the bowl on the counter. She grabbed a spoon from a nearby drawer and scooped some of the rich broth into her mouth. It burned slightly as she swallowed it but she was so hungry she barely noticed. She tried to eat the soup slowly at first but within seconds she was gulping the bowl down by holding it to her mouth.

The action brought memories of drugging Quincy with the sleeping potion flooding back into her head, which brought worried thoughts about Yvette surging through Vita.

She finished the soup, but her stomach felt awful afterwards. She wasn't sure if she had just eaten too quickly or if the guilt of leaving Yvette made her sick to her stomach.

She felt sleepy and light-headed. She started to walk to her bedroom, but she knew she didn't have the energy to make it back to her bed. Instead, she lay flat on the floor in the living room.

"Maybe I will search on the computer for Yvette..." she murmured out loud and she laid down near her computer.

Though her hand made it to the keypad of the laptop, Vita's body had succumb to the physical nature of exhaustion and she passed out on the floor.

When she awoke again, her body felt slightly better and she felt more awake and alert than she had the last time. Her physical movements made her computer screen turn from its sleep mode to awake mode. She looked at the time in the lower right hand corner and it read 11:16 p.m. She was shocked. It was still August 2, but she had passed out for almost twelve hours.

She sat up and rubbed her eyes. She lived by herself since her parents died and she had no siblings so it was no wonder she had been able to sleep for twelve hours without being woken up, but she was still rather shocked by the event.

She realized that she was intensely thirsty again. She got up slowly and was pleasantly surprised to feel that her pain levels had dropped drastically. She was still not entirely up to par but she could walk through the house without leaning on things.

She went to the kitchen and gulped down four more glasses of water. She realized almost instantaneously that she needed to relieve herself so she went to the bathroom. While she was in there, the presence of the bathtub triggered her desire to soak her sore muscles. She let the bath water run and came back out to the living room. She collapsed on the floor, Indian style, in front of the computer.

While the water ran, she decided to search the internet. Her hands shook a little as she opened all of the search engines on the internet and began basic searches for Yvette. She wasn't entirely certain what she should be searching for though.

"Yvette, kidnapped by magical freak show to be used as a pleasure tool." Vita mused darkly to herself and shuttered after she said it.

She sighed and searched for random missing girls named Yvette. She assumed that there shouldn't be very many since Yvette was not a very common name. The search brought up a few items here and there, but some of the search items were obscure or didn't lead to anything in particular except ads promoting this or that. She sighed wearily, but she felt slightly better not finding anything directly linked to Yvette being dead. In her mind, she had pictured a full shot of Yvette's smiling face as a national news article with the title of the article reading 'Missing Girl Found Dead with Mysterious Burn' or 'Missing Girl Uncovered in Woods with Connections to the Occult.' She had no idea how Quincy killed people, but she didn't particularly want to know how he did either.

The sound of the bath water running in the background reminded Vita that she needed to go check on it. She walked into the bathroom and saw it was the perfect height so she turned off the running water. She checked the temperature and was pleased to feel the lukewarm temperature on her hand. It sent goose bumps up her arm.

She was about to get into the bath when she felt some panic. She wondered what would happen if someone attacked her while she was in the bath. She walked to her front door and unlocked and locked it for good measure. She also checked all of the window latches. She stood in the kitchen and debated if it would be okay to leave herself vulnerable in the bathtub. She realized that anyone who had been watching her could have taken her numerous times already, but she still felt uneasy. It was most likely uncomfortable feelings which lingered from the suggested sexual acts which Quincy desired.

She sighed heavily and figured she may as well just get the bath over with.

"If I had just gone in when it was ready ten minutes ago, I would be practically done by now..." She muttered to herself, almost chastising herself for her worry.

She grabbed her radio from the kitchen counter, while she thought of it, she grabbed a large knife from the kitchen drawer as well. She wasn't sure that it would stop a wizard but it was better than having nothing.

She got into the bath and tried to relax. The music was set to a local station and she listened to the various songs. She was glad she brought the radio into the bathroom because it helped to sidetrack her mind from all things wizardly. She hummed and sang along to the music and she really felt like her life was back to being normal. She looked at the knife on the floor and shook her head.

"I really just need to relax." She told herself. "I don't know what happened, but at this point if they haven't found me, they aren't going to."

After a while she felt soggy, so Vita got out of the bath and dried off. She went to her room, put on her favorite pajamas and laid out on her bed. She felt so at ease.

"I wish I had my cell phone so I could contact people." She said out loud as she relaxed on her bed. "There's no way to tell what happened to it though. I will have to stop by Emily and Shelly's house to see if they have any of my stuff with them."

She sighed at all of the trouble she had gone through and closed her eyes. She felt sleep creeping in on her again and she just let it take her.

She woke up the next morning to hear the birds singing sweetly outside again. She was relieved she had been able to go through two nights without being attack or kidnapped by magical beings. Whoever had helped her had no interest in taking her or attacking her, and she could not have asked for anything else from the person than to be left alone.

She sat up in her bed and stretched. She was still slightly sore, but it was nothing compared to the pain she had felt a few days ago. She went to the kitchen and resumed her normal day of life. She made herself breakfast and then she went to her computer.

She had forgotten to shut off her laptop, so all of her searches were still up. She sipped some of her tea and shakily hit the refresh button on all of the search engines to see if anything new had appeared. She felt even more relieved when nothing new had appeared.

Vita closed out the search windows and went to her social networking pages. She choked on some of her tea when she saw how many notifications she had.

"Did they know I was missing?" Vita wondered to herself.

She began looking through the notifications and she realized most of the notifications where of pictures from the convention. She smiled as she looked through the pictures of she and her friends being goofballs at the convention. She was relieved that the pictures had just been posted recently because that meant that Shelly and Emily had made it back to town safely. A loud beep startled her and made her tea splash around in the mug she was using. In the bottom corner, she saw that someone had started a private chat with her.

"Alder Cole?" Vita read the name out loud. "Why is Alder messaging me?"

She and Alder had been friends since they were very young. Alder never had a mother and his father was hardly around so Alder came over to Vita's house all the time throughout their years together. Alder was the person who helped Vita live on her own when her parents died in a car accident three years ago. Alder's father died two years after Vita's parents had died, leaving the two alone in only each other's company. The incidents had brought the two even closer. She realized suddenly that Alder had probably been trying to text her, but she didn't have her phone.

"He would be worried about me." She said and smiled.

She looked at the message and could tell he was extremely worried.

'Vita are you alright?' Alder had written into the message box.

'Yea, I am okay.' Vita typed and paused. How was she supposed to explain everything to everyone. 'I lost my phone so I haven't been able to call or text anyone for a few days.' She finally entered that basic fact into the message box.

'It has almost been a week...' Alder typed in return and was obviously more worried than Vita could fix.

"I have no idea what to say to you Alder..." Vita said out loud to herself as she decided what to type to him.

'Is everything okay?' Alder sent after Vita had not replied for a while.

'Yea...I think so...' Vita replied back.

Instantly, she wished she had not sent that. It was true that she was not sure if she was okay or not but she knew those words would intensify Alder's concern.

'Why don't we meet up and you can tell me all about it.' Alder typed back and it was obvious that he was telling Vita they were going to meet up and not asking.

'What time would you like to meet?' Vita asked in return.

'2:30 at the fountain?' Alder responded.

Vita looked at the clock. Meeting at 2:30 only gave Vita about two hours to get ready, which was a lot, but she also just felt like she needed more time to relax. Also, she enjoyed making Alder go to the beat of someone else's drum because it slightly agitated him. His face would get slightly red and he would try to act like everything was fine even though his initial plan or idea had been changed. It was cute.

'How about 3:30? I need to get ready and I should stop by Shelly and Emily's house to see if they have my stuff.' Vita informed Alder.

'That's fine...why do they have your stuff? Didn't you come home with them? How did you get home?...Are you sure you are alright?' Alder's questions went on for miles.

Again, Vita wasn't sure exactly what to say to him. She didn't even know if she should tell him or if it put him in danger. She would never forgive herself if anything ever happened to Alder.

'It's...a long story...I will just see you at 3:30 okay?' Vita said plainly.

'Alright, I will see you then...' Alder replied and went offline instantly.

Vita got up and started to get ready to meet Alder. She cleaned up some of the messes she had made while she was half-awake as well. She washed up and then, she went to her closet to pick out some clothes. Vita assumed it was hot outside since it was August and she grabbed a yellow tank top with limes and oranges on it and a pair of green casual shorts. She brushed her long brown hair and threw it up into a bun on her head. She went over to her makeup and put on some basic foundation and just a brown eye shadow and black mascara. She looked at herself in the mirror, her green eyes staring back at herself and appraising her look.

In reality, she didn't care what Alder thought; he had seen her at her worst and he didn't care. She appreciated that about him. She didn't look too strange, but she still felt strange. After everything she had been through, she was having a hard time getting back to her normal life. Her biggest fear by far was leaving her house and getting caught by one of those wizards.

"The convention was like three states over." She said to her reflection in the mirror, staring her own green eyes down. "There is no way they are going to be randomly wandering around my hometown all of a sudden, especially if they haven't found me already."

The pep talk gave her a little more courage but she still felt like she should just live under a rock for the rest of her life. She walked to the living room and looked at the clock on her computer; it read 2:20. She gathered her spare key, since she took her regular house key to the convention, and her car keys and put her green sandals on. She didn't have her wallet or purse and it felt odd, but there was nothing she could do about it.

Her hand shook a little as she turned the doorknob. As light filtered into the house, Vita winced a bit but the warmth on her skin was a welcome feeling. She sighed heavily and walked out the door into the bright, warm light. She stood outside on the sidewalk for a while and just let the sunshine rest itself on her body as she stood there. When she was done soaking in the sun, she looked at her blue Honda. It sat exactly where she left it and it brought a significant feeling of normalcy flood through her.

She smiled and got into her car. Her first stop would be at Emily and Shelly's house, where hopefully, she could gain some answers about what exactly had happened to her while she was at the convention. She would just have to see what they knew when she got there.


	4. Chapter 4

Vita felt strange driving down the roads of her home town again. She saw the faces of people in town that she knew and she felt at ease seeing everything in town was just as it should be. However, she couldn't shake the nervous feelings which were nagging her. Nothing of incident had happened but her guard was still up after everything which had happened to her while she was at the convention.

Vita exhaled deeply to try to relax herself. She leaned over to turn on the car radio. It was set to one of her preset stations and some country music rang softly through the stereo system.

"One more day, one more time, one more sunset baby, I'd be satisfied, but then again, I know what it would do...It would leave me wishing still...for one more day with you." Diamond Rio harmonized into the silence of the car.

For some reason, the song made Vita ill at ease, like it was forewarning her to be careful. Vita had heard the song before and she would have listened to the whole song normally, but she needed to listen to something which wouldn't have any connection to what had just happened. She turned the radio to one of her other presets and some alternative pop music with mindless lyrics streamed out of the speakers.

"That's better..." Vita mumbled to herself and sighed.

The drive to Shelly and Emily's house was not extremely far, so it only took Vita fifteen minutes to get to their place. Vita barely paid any attention to what was going on around her as she drove there. She was afraid to discover what Shelly and Emily had to tell her about the anime convention and the various possibilities were running through her mind like racecars. Every once in a while some of the cars crashed on top of each other in her mind and she got a twisting feeling in her gut because she wasn't completely certain Shelly and Emily were actually okay. She saw the posts online but that didn't mean much in the long run.

"They probably wouldn't have been physically damaged but Quincy..." Vita paused at his name; it made her nervous to think about him and his brother and the other wizards. "...he would have done something mentally to them...like he did to Yvette..."

Vita felt like she was going to vomit. She couldn't control her thoughts. She kept trying to steer her thoughts away from everything but they kept going right back to the awful ordeal which had befallen her. Luckily, Vita didn't have much time to let her mind worry itself into a deadlocked thought because she had arrived at her destination. She pulled into the driveway at Shelly and Emily's house and she knew she had to prepare herself for this current event. Vita parked off to the side of the house.

Shelly and Emily rented a small house together near the campus. It was similar to Vita's house but Vita lived out towards the woods and Shelly and Emily had neighbors so close that they could have shouting matches from across open windows, which had happened a few times in the past.

Vita simply sat in the car for a few minutes. The engine was off, but she just couldn't bring herself to go to the front door and find out exactly what had happened. She knew she had to figure out the truth, but there were so many things which she didn't understand. She didn't know if she would be able to handle it.

The time on the clock read 2:40 p.m. She only had about a half hour before she had to go meet with Alder.

She swallowed hard and moved a shaking hand to open the car door. She walked slowly to the front door while looking about her constantly to see if anyone was watching her. When she got to the door, she reached out a hand to turn the doorknob. Shelly and Emily always told Vita to just walk right in and Vita had always told them to do the same, but this time Vita felt so afraid that she could barely move.

Suddenly, the doorknob turned and opened. Vita was startled, but she felt so much better to see Shelly standing there holding a bag of garbage.

"H-Hey Shelly." Vita said shakily.

"Vita?..." Shelly said dropping the garbage. "Is that really you?"

Vita could tell that Shelly was going through some sort of confusion, but she couldn't comprehend exactly what confusion it was. She figured Shelly and Emily would be surprised to see her but Shelly's reaction was overly peculiar, like she had never expected to see Vita again.

"I thought..." Shelly reached out her hand and put it to Vita's face. "I thought you died..."

Vita almost fell backwards down the steps, but she caught herself on the railing.

"You thought I died?!" Vita asked incredulously. "Why?!"

"That guy..." Shelly said and grabbed her head like she was in pain. "I don't really know, Vita..."

Vita was furious. She figured Quincy would have told them something about her to make them accept leaving without her, but death was too much. Though, the thought of death brought back the memory from the mall and Vita quickly realized that Quincy probably intended to kill her regardless. The thought made her feel faint and sick and her thoughts shifted to Yvette.

"Vita...I don't understand..." Shelly said and she was leaning on the door post holding her head. "That guy...he had said...or didn't he...you were gone...dead...but Emily and I..."

Shelly was practically falling so Vita stepped in swiftly to grab her before she fell. Vita felt a mix of emotions as she helped Shelly into the house. She was furious with Quincy. She was sick at the fact that her closest friends thought she had died. Most of all, she was afraid of what would happen to Shelly now as she tried to remember what had happened at the anime convention.

"It's okay Shelly, I'm here now. Don't worry about anything." Vita said as she laid Shelly on the couch in the living room.

"No, but you're not supposed to be here..." Shelly said and put both of her hands to her head in a movement of pain. "He said...you died and that we...we should not grieve...we should be happy because you were...happy and satisfied in the end..."

Vita was disgusted with what Quincy had told her friends since it seemed suggestive, but her main focus at the moment was trying to ease the pain for Shelly. Vita watched as Shelly writhed in pain on the couch. She couldn't understand what was going on and she had no idea what to do to try to fix this problem.

"Hey Shelly, what's with all the noise down here?" Emily said as she came into the living room.

Vita looked up at Emily and didn't know what to say in response. Their eyes locked onto each other's and Vita could tell Emily was going to have problems like Shelly had, but she didn't expect what happened next.

"V-Vita..." Emily managed to say before she passed out onto the floor.

"Emily!" Vita ran over to her other friend.

Emily had managed to avoiding hitting her head on anything when she fell but Vita was still panicking. She half carried and half dragged Emily into the living room and managed to put her into the nearby recliner chair. She looked from Shelly to Emily and she couldn't help the tears that were building up in her eyes.

"This is worse than I could have imagined..." Vita said quietly.

Vita fell slowly to the ground and just stared at her friends for a while. She had no idea what to do to fix things for them. She noticed that they had both passed out at this point and she wondered if she should get ice for them. The thought seemed reasonable, but she couldn't bring herself to move.

Vita put one of her hands to her forehead and tried to fight back the tears that were welling in her eyes and threatening to spill over. Shelly let out a low moan and Vita knew she needed to do something for her friends. She swallowed hard in an attempt to fight back all of the feelings that were almost overwhelming her and she went into the kitchen.

Vita went into the freezer and grabbed two handfuls of ice and put them into two sandwich baggies. She set them on the counter as she tried to find something to tie the bags with so the ice didn't fall all over the place.

She pulled out the first drawer and smiled sadly at what she saw. There were several different colored twisty straws piled on top of each other. Vita pulled one out fondly and her mind went back to New Years Eve when they bought the straws on a whim to celebrate the new year. A lone tear ran down her face as she remembered all of the fun they had that night sitting in the living room and being goofballs.

"I...We're not going to be able to go back to that..." Vita said to herself solemnly.

She took a deep breath and continued searching for ties for the bags of ice. Though she tried to keep her composure, she wiped away tears here and there while she searched for the ties. She eventually found two ties in the silverware drawer and she tied the bags quickly.

Vita walked back into the living room and could barely take what was currently happening to her. She set the bags of ice on the heads of each of her friends and just hovered near them for a minute.

"So..." Vita said quietly. "I guess this is it. I have no idea how to fix this spell that jerk Quincy put on you two and I can't be around you without causing you pain. This is how we'll say goodbye then. Maybe someday..."

Vita had to stop. Her emotions were choking her up and she couldn't finish what she wanted to say. The events at Shelly and Emily's house made Vita realize that she was never going to be able to be around her friends, but it also made her face the harsh reality that what she had gone through was real. The threat to her life as she knew it was still out there. She wiped away some tears and she decided she should go search for her stuff before Shelly and Emily woke up.

Vita took a deep breath and began searching the house. She looked in both of their rooms first and did not find any of her own belongings, though she had trouble staying in the rooms longer than a minute because there were too many memories flooding her thoughts and threatening to break her down completely.

Shelly and Emily had a spare room in their house. They had always pestered Vita that she should move in with them, but Vita enjoyed having her alone time. Vita walked into the third room and was relieved to see all of her stuff laying about the room.

'Not that it really matters...' Vita thought to herself.

There were at least three huge piles of items from all of her cosplay costumes that she took to the convention. She knew she didn't have enough time to grab all of her stuff and she wondered if taking things would mess up Shelly and Emily even more. She decided she would just grab her purse and her suitcase. Of all of the items in the room, they were the smaller items and they shouldn't be missed from the huge piles of cosplay items.

Vita picked up her purse and suitcase and she walked back into the living room. Shelly and Emily were still passed out on the couch and floor. Vita could feel the tears welling in her eyes and she knew she needed to leave while she was still strong enough to tear herself away. She choked back some sobs and headed to the door. As she left, she closed the door tightly behind her and it felt like a door in her own life had closed itself on her.

"I never would have thought..." Vita said to herself as she stood on the other side of the door. "At least they are alive..."

Vita tried to comfort herself with that thought as she threw her stuff into her car. She got into the car quickly and started the engine. She felt like she needed to run far away from this house. She backed out of the driveway and drove aimlessly for a while. She had no idea what to do; she was at her wit's end with everything that had happened and was still affecting her life.

"Who can I even talk to about this..." Vita said helplessly to herself.

Suddenly, she realized that she was supposed to meet Alder at 3:30 p.m. She looked at the clock and saw that it was 3:28 p.m. She was relieved that time had not gotten too far away from her. She directed her car towards the college campus.

"Will Alder believe everything I tell him?" Vita asked herself as she pulled into the campus parking lot near the fountain.

Vita was worried what would happen when she told Alder what she had been through. She tried to play the situation out in her head and there were two things which could happen. The first situation had Alder understanding the situation even though it was hard to believe and the second situation had Alder telling Vita she needed to talk to someone to get help because she was obviously dealing with too much stress from something or other.

"He has known me for decades..." Vita said to herself. "He should trust my judgment enough to know that I am not going crazy."

Vita took a deep breath and looked at the clock. It read 3:34 p.m. She got out of the car quickly and walked swiftly to the fountain. The fountain had always been a place for Vita and Alder to meet and talk. It was their spot.

Halfway to the fountain Vita froze. For some reason, she felt like she was being watched. Slowly she turned in different directions to see if anyone was watching her. The feeling made her want to run and hide in the nearest building and never leave. Her heart was racing furiously in her chest but she couldn't see anyone watching her.

"Vita." A deep musky voice said from behind her.

Vita was startled and turned quickly to see who had approached her. She was relieved to see Alder standing in front of her. She looked up into his dark eyes which were framed on his face by his long, dark black hair. With his dark brown piercing eyes staring down into her with such worry, she just let all of her emotions take over and she ran to him.

"Alder..." Vita sobbed as she buried her face into his chest. "I don't know what to do. I am so scared of what is going to happen."

Vita sobbed into Alder's chest and he simply stood there holding her. He held her head comfortingly with one hand and rubbed her back with the other. He had done the same thing for her when Vita found out her parents died.

"Vita," Alder began and moved her head so she was looking up into his dark eyes. "Let's go sit on the bench and you can tell me all about it."

Vita could see the surplus of worry which was amassing in from Alder's eyes, but she could also see that it pained him in some way to see her suffering like she was.

They walked over to the bench and sat down. The falling fountain water made a nice, rhythmic sound on the water and brought some peace to Vita.

"What were you doing standing on the pavement and looking around?" Alder asked as they sat down. He still had his arm around Vita as they sat on the bench.

"I...I felt like someone was watching me..." Vita said shyly because she was afraid of what Alder would think.

"Of course someone was watching you." Alder laughed a little and the sound made Vita's heart feel more at ease. "I was watching from here on the bench. You were late and I was worried, so I watched you walk all the way up here."

Vita looked at him curiously but she was smiling too. She wasn't sure if that was the cause of her paranoia a few minutes ago or not, but the idea calmed her slightly.

"Oh..." Vita finally replied. "That makes sense...sorry I was late. I stopped at..."

Vita had trouble finishing her sentence. Thinking about Shelly and Emily made her throat tighten.

"Where did you stop Vita?" Alder asked in a soothing voice; it was obvious he knew something had happened.

"I-I stopped at Shelly and Emily's house..." Vita finally said and tears began rolling down her face. "Alder...so much has happened in the past few days...I don't even know what to think and you...you're the only one I have to talk to about it."

Vita was wiping the tears off of her eyes as Alder pulled her in closer to him for a hug.

"I assumed something had happened when I saw your face." Alder said and sighed as he hugged Vita.

"I probably look like a scared rabbit." Vita said laughing and crying at the same time.

"Well, not a scared rabbit per say," Alder said and pulled away to look into Vita's eyes. "You look a bit more like a raccoon."

Vita looked at Alder's smiling face and was confused at first. Suddenly, she realized what he meant.

"Oh my...Are you saying my mascara ran all over?" Vita said and tears were still rolling down her face.

"It's okay." Alder said and laughed lightly. "Raccoons are cute."

Vita couldn't help but laugh a little. Alder always had a way of making her feel so much better; he always knew what to say.

"I feel so embarrassed though, Alder..." Vita said trying to wipe her eyes.

"Here..." Alder said laughing and wiping her eyes. "Most of it is gone but you're definitely going to want to get cleaned up before you go to meet the president."

"Thank you Alder." Vita said and stared at the ground with a slight smile.

There was silence between Vita and Alder for a few minutes. Vita wasn't sure what Alder was thinking but she knew she felt at ease around him. She was sure he would listen to her with an open mind regardless of how crazy everything seemed.

"Vita..." Alder said in a soft tone. "Why don't you tell me what has you all upset?"

Vita swallowed hard; she wasn't sure she would be able to tell Alder everything without losing control of herself again and sobbing like a helpless child.

"Alder...while we all were at the convention...something happened to me..." Vita said and a few stray tears began to stream down her cheeks. "I...was kidnapped...by some guy..."

"What?!" Alder's tone was heavy and threatening. "What do you mean?"

Vita continued to stare at the ground and more tears started to stream down her face.

"Vita," Alder said and directed her chin to move her face to look into his. "Did he hurt you?"

Vita stared into Alder's dark eyes and saw the fury that was building behind them. She was flattered by his protectiveness but she was startled by the depths of the fury she was seeing.

"No...I got away before he could do anything." Vita replied shakily. "But..."

"Vita, tell me what happened." Alder commanded in a soothing but worried tone.

"Alder, I need you to keep an open mind when I tell you everything alright?" Vita said as tears streamed down her face.

"Of course I will Vita." Alder said and wiped some of the tears away.

"Alder so many things have happened...I don't even know what really happened anymore." Vita said and put her hands to her face. "Alder...the person that kidnapped me...he was some sort of magician...he took me and another girl...he did something to Shelly and Emily so they think I died and nothing else can convince them otherwise...I don't know how I got away...it was through some spell...I just feel like I am going crazy Alder..."

Vita sat there wiping her face and sobbing. There was a long pause as she sat there. She thought Alder was just waiting for her to calm down to say something in return; however, after a while, Vita felt like something was wrong.

"Alder...I can understand if you think I am crazy..." Vita started to say but she stopped when she saw that Alder wasn't moving. "Alder?..."

She put her hand to his face but he didn't move at all or say a word. She noticed that his eyes were fixed to the side like he was staring at something coming towards them. Her heart started beating so fast she thought she might pass out. She was afraid to turn to look at what or whom Alder was staring.

'He...He is frozen...like those people in the mall...' Vita thought to herself as tears streamed down her face.

"What do you think, Kael? Would lover boy Alder here think our dear Vita was crazy?" Quincy's sarcastic but peppy voice asked.

Vita was frozen in fear when she heard his voice.

"Probably, Quincy. Magicians aren't real." Kael replied. "Now if she had told him a wizard kidnapped her, it would have been more realistic."

"That's true!" Quincy responded in a matter of fact tone. "Look at us! We're here right now!"

Vita was tired of these games and she could feel the fury growing within her. She knew she couldn't run from them, so she decided to argue with them in an attempt to fight against them.

"Do you think this is funny?!" Vita stood up and shouted at the two brothers.

Vita watched as Quincy and Kael stared back at her with curiosity embedded deeply into their bright blue eyes. It was like staring at mirror images but their hair was different.

"Well, I find it amusing that you called Quincy a magician." Kael responded nonchalantly. "Personally, I would have put two-bit in front of it, but that's just me."

"And what exactly is that supposed to mean, Kael?!" Quincy asked in a theatrically annoyed tone.

"It means you're not very good at being a wizard." Kael responded with a smirk in an attempt to egg on Quincy.

"Well, I will keep that in mind brother." Quincy said. "We will have to settle this when we get home now won't we..."

"I don't need to settle anything with you. It's obvious I would win." Kael said and shrugged his shoulders.

"Like Hell you would!" Quincy said and stamped his foot.

"What on Earth is wrong with you two?!" Vita interjected angrily into their conversation. "You're ruining my life every time I turn a corner and now, here you are in front of me doing a standup comedy routine!"

Vita was at her breaking point. She could not handle anything about this situation anymore and she wanted nothing to do with any of this mess.

"Apologies my dear," Quincy started. "If you want to get right down to the brass tax, we're going to be taking you with us."

"Let's go." Kael commanded bluntly with a sharp look in his eyes.

Vita was breathing heavily. She was both afraid and angry and she couldn't tell which emotion was stronger. She knew she wouldn't be able to fight the two of them off or run from them, but she knew she had no interest in going anywhere with them.

"Yea...I will get right on that..." Vita replied sarcastically and backed up a step.

"Look, Vita...We managed to freeze your friend before you started telling him about wizards...so technically, we don't have to kill him..." Quincy said and his eyes pierced meaningfully into Vita's eyes.

Vita bit her lip in response. She knew what Quincy was suggesting, but she wasn't sure how to respond. She definitely didn't want anything to happen to Alder; it would destroy her if anything happened to him. She ran various pieces of information through her mind to try to find an arguing point.

"We?... The two of you are working together now? I thought you...you two were supposed to be fighting each other..." Vita said trying to grasp at any straw that would offer some possibility for salvation.

"We worked things out." Quincy responded with a smile and a thumbs up.

"You will come with us or we will not hesitate to kill him." Kael said abruptly.

Vita felt herself freeze inside and she was instantly worried that Alder would caught up in this mess and be killed in the process. She turned her head slightly so she could look at Alder's face. It was still frozen so he was looking off to the side. His whole body was still frozen into the shape of him comforting her. She felt tears rolling down her face again. She was going to be losing everything and her heart ached at the emptiness.

"You promise...that you won't hurt him if I come with you?" Vita asked softly as she clenched her hands at her sides and stared at the ground.

"Wizard's honor." Quincy and Kael responded in unison.

"That doesn't mean anything to me..." Vita said and look them both in the eyes, her own green eyes pleading for a serious promise. "Tell me that you promise you will not kill or hurt him in any way..."

More tears were streaming down her face slowly even though she tried to be strong. Quincy and Kael appeared to become uncomfortable when Vita's crying eyes locked onto their own eyes because they both dropped their nonchalant attitudes for a more serious and soft tone.

"We promise we won't hurt or kill him." Kael and Quincy said in unison again but with more substance than the first time.

"Alright..." Vita said and nodded. "I will come with you then..."

She turned and stared at Alder for a second. She wiped some tears off of her face and leaned in towards her dear friend. She put her arms around his neck and hugged him softly. She fought back waves of emotions and choked back a few nagging sobs.

"G-Goodbye...Alder..." Vita said softly and tears streamed down her face uncontrollably again.

Vita stood up and wiped some of the tears away as she turned and walked towards Quincy and Kael. She made it about halfway to where they were standing when a surge of darkness penetrated the area and made Vita freeze in her tracks. She turned slowly and she was surprised to see the man from the mall standing four feet away from Alder. His dark gray metal suit towered ominously over Alder.

Vita turned completely to face Alder and the man, but before she could do anything Quincy and Kael were standing protectively in front of her. It was like déjà vu.

"Damn it...How did the Black Knight find her..." Quincy muttered under his breath.

"Does it matter?" Kael responded with a matter of fact tone. "What should we do?"

"One of us will distract him and the other will whisk away our damsel?" Quincy whispered softly to Kael.

"Do you really trust them?" The Black Knight interjected into the conversation and his voice was so chilling it made Vita cold to the core.

Vita wasn't sure what was going on or to whom the Black Knight was talking. She knew she was afraid of this man and more than anything, she was afraid of what was going to happen to Alder. Quincy and Kael had no interest in protecting him, and Vita doubted she could do anything against this dark force.

"Witch! Answer me!" The Black Knight commanded and pointed at Vita.

"Are...you talking to me?..." Vita asked incredulously.

"You are the only witch standing here...and the only one in but a handful..." The Black Knight answered practically. "Do you think you can actually trust those two not to kill your human friend here?"

"They...promised me they wouldn't..." Vita responded in confusion and looked at the backs of Quincy and Kael's heads.

"Vita, don't listen to anything he says to you..." Quincy said flatly; he had lost all of his playfulness.

"He will try to get into your head to make you react..." Kael commented.

"They say they won't hurt him, but how would you actually know? Are you so naive that you believe these two will be open and honest with you about everything?" The Black Knight scoffed.

Vita wasn't sure how to answer the Black Knight. She took a moment and thought about the question.

"Well...I couldn't exactly stop them if they did kill him," Vita began solemnly. "But, I need to have faith in something since this is all so new to me. If they are the ones who are going to take me, then we are going to have to build trust between us. I don't have very many options in front of me, Black Knight. When they promised me, they meant it and I...I could feel it."

Vita put her hand to her heart when she said the last part and closed her eyes. She was surprised at her own words and she didn't know if she actually felt that way. However, she really did not have many options. When she opened her eyes again, Quincy and Kael were looking at her over their shoulders curiously.

"And if they deceive you?" The Black Knight responded.

"If they deceive me with their promises," Vita started sadly. "I would be heart-broken. I am in a position where I have to trust them and if they break that trust, it will only breed hate between us...and I hope it doesn't come down to that...You can call it being naive, and if I was choosing this option myself, I would agree with you...but I am being forced into this, so I will do what I have to do in order to ensure the safety of those I care about..."

"Well, since you claim you don't have many choices in the matter, I will give you another option which will decide everything." The Black Knight responded coldly. "You have five seconds to come with me instead of those two lack luster wizards or..."

"Who the Hell are you calling 'lack luster'?!" Quincy interjected while pointing at the Black Knight and stomping his foot.

"Five seconds to go to you or what..." Vita asked ignoring Quincy's outburst and fearing what the Black Knight was going to say.

"You have five seconds to come to me or I will turn your friend to ash..." The Black Knight threatened.

"No! You can't!" Vita said and tried to step forward.

"We're not going to let you go any further." Kael said and stepped in front of her.

"Four seconds..." The Black Knight called.

"Well then do something to stop him!" Vita begged.

"Three seconds..." The Black Knight announced.

"There...isn't anything we can do..." Quincy said softly without looking at Vita.

"Two seconds..." The Black Knight lingered slightly on this count.

"No!" Vita screamed.

She tried to run at the Black Knight, but Kael wrapped his arms around her waist and held her struggling body against his. Vita struggled in what seemed like slow motion to her as she watched the Black Knight form a giant black orb in his palm. Vita didn't hear the Knight count down to zero because everything became silent in her mind as she watched the Black Knight project the orb into Alder's still form.

She felt her head go faint as she watched Alder's body go up in black flames and then swiftly turn to ash. She stopped fighting against Kael's hold on her and she simply closed her eyes and covered her sobbing face with her hands.

"Quincy, let's go now!" Kael shouted at Quincy who was watching the whole event with wide sympathetic eyes.

Vita felt hot rage overcome her as she stood there sobbing. She wanted to punish the man who had murdered Alder in cold blood right in front of her, but she was more furious with own weaknesses. She wasn't able to save Alder. Her mind flashed images of Alder's smiling face through her mind over and over again from different events they had shared together.

"Let me go!" Vita commanded suddenly.

The abruptness and tone of Vita's command caught Quincy and Kael off guard and before they could say anything, Vita had shoved Kael off of her and she was sprinting at the Black Knight. Everything around her was moving quickly, but it still felt like everything was set in slow motion. Vita had never hit anyone before, but instinctively, she made a fist and aimed it straight at the Black Knight's chest. She could feel her body surging with sadness over Alder and she focused all of her emotions into her fist.

Again, everything seemed to be going in slow motion as Vita's fist landed on the Black Knight's dark gray chest plate. She wasn't sure what to expect from the blow, but she was acting solely on instinct so she didn't care about the consequences. When she hit the chest plate, a giant flash of white light emerged from the impact, and she saw the Black Knight being flown off into the distance by the blast. Her head felt fuzzy and she knew she was going to pass out.

Vita could feel herself falling to the ground as she passed out. She felt drained and she let sleep consume her senses. The last image that ran through her mind as she passed out was the smiling face of Alder, her dear friend.


	5. Chapter 5

Vita opened her eyes slowly and groggily. Rays of sunlight drifted in between heavy burgundy curtains onto her face. She realized with a start that she had no idea where she was. She sat up quickly to look at her surroundings, but she felt instant waves of pain as she moved. The pain forced her back down onto the bed she was on.

Breathing heavily from the pain, Vita just let her body rest flat on the bed. She looked up at the canopy above the bed; it was the same burgundy color of the curtains. The wooden posts of the bed had various ornate carvings in them. She pushed herself up against the backboard slightly so she could try to look around the rest of the room, wincing in pain as she did so.

She gasped at the sight of the room. Though the curtains dimmed the room slightly, the vast size was obvious and the antiquity of the room reminded Vita of a room which would have been in Versailles castle1. If she wasn't in as much physical pain as she was, she would have thought she was dreaming.

"What is going on..." She mumbled to herself and continued looking about the room.

With her back resting on the headboard of the bed, she brought her hands to her face and tried to remember what had happened. She rubbed her temples as she let various memories of the previous day's events run through her mind.

With sorrow and annoyance, she remembered the debacle at Shelly and Emily's house. She sighed and shook her head and let her mind continue to wander through the events. She knew she went to go meet Alder after she had gone to Shelly and Emily's house.

"Alder..." she whispered to herself almost choking on her friend's name as she spoke it.

Tears began to roll down her cheeks uncontrollably as the image of Alder being turned to ash flashed across her mind. She grabbed one of the plush pillows next to her and buried her face into it as she sobbed.

A soft knocking sound startled her and caused her to look up towards the doorway. Her heart sank and her eyes widened when she saw Quincy and Kael standing in the doorway looking at her.

"Good morning!" Quincy said cheerfully and walked into the room with a bright smile and flamboyant grace.

Kael walked in silently behind Quincy and eyed Vita with an expression of curiosity and empathy. His hands rested casually in his pockets.

"What's so good about it..." Vita whispered flatly and buried her face back into the pillow.

"What's so good about it?" Quincy echoed Vita's words as a light-hearted question. "Well! Kael and I are here! And you're here Vita! We got away from that awful Black Knight and now we're all home!"

"Good for you!" Vita spat out sarcastically and looked at the two brothers. "You two got everything you were after. Congratulations!"

Quincy recoiled slightly from Vita's response and Kael sighed heavily and shook his head. He walked closer to the bed and sat down at the edge.

"Vita," Kael began and looked into Vita's eyes with a caring calm. "I am sorry about your human friend."

Vita felt fresh tears rolling down her face. Her angry, furrowed brow relaxed slightly and she rubbed some of the tears off her face with one of her hands while she held the pillow to herself with her other hand.

"Quincy feels terrible about it too; he just sucks at expressing feelings." Kael said and rolled his eyes.

"I do not suck at..." Quincy started in a low growl but he stopped when he saw that Vita was looking him.

Quincy flushed slightly, but he quickly regained his composure and sat down on the bed.

"Vita, we are both sorry we couldn't do anything about your friend." Quincy began in an odd serious tone. "If Kael and I had split up to try to prevent the Black Knight from...killing your human friend..."

Quincy paused slightly at those words like he wasn't sure how to phrase the event which had occurred.

"If we had split up, the Black Knight would have taken one of us down instantly." Kael finished. "He knew we couldn't do anything separately."

"So, in the long run," Quincy said and rubbed the back of his head. "If we had saved your friend, one of us would be dead, which may not seem like a bad point for you. Your friend would have lived-"

"There's no guarantee that the Black Knight would have even spared your friend." Kael interjected solemnly. "If he had, it would have been to use the human as leverage against you later."

"Quite right." Quincy commented. "Basically, if we would have tried to save your friend, you would have ended up with the Black Knight instead of being here with us."

"I can promise you that the Black Knight would not have been as mindful as we have been of your loss either." Kael said darkly.

Vita looked back and forth between the two brothers. She wasn't entirely certain how to respond to them.

"I-I...I appreciate your sentiment..." Vita said quietly after a while. "It's...just all so much to take in..."

"I imagine it would be." Kael said briefly and stood up.

"It's going to be a lot to get use to." Quincy said and got up from the bed as well. "Kael and I will be here to walk you through everything."

"As patiently as wizardly possible..." Kael responded as he walked towards the door.

"Right." Quincy chuckled and shook his head as if there was some underlying joke between the two brothers. "There is a bathroom to the left of the bed for you to freshen up and the closet over there has been stocked with mountains of clothes for you, dear Vita."

Vita watched as Quincy met Kael at the doorway. She wondered if they were giving her space to be considerate of her loss.

"Oh!" Quincy responded quickly and winked. "I promise not all of the outfits are harem garbs."

"You're welcome." Kael said and walked out the door.

"What are you trying to say Kael?" Quincy shouted after him as he shut the door.

Vita could hear the two brothers teasing each other as they walked down the hall. It made her smile slightly in spite of everything that had happened. It reminded her of how she and Alder used to pick on each other. Her mind replayed memories of she and Alder playing practical jokes on each other and making faces at each other.

"Oh Alder..." Vita said and wiped some fresh tears away.

Vita sighed deeply as she rubbed her face. She wasn't sure what she should do. She knew she was caught in a world she didn't understand with people she barely knew, and more than anything else, she knew that the world she had been part of previously was way behind her and beyond her grasp.

"What should I do..." Vita mumbled to herself and looked around the room.

'Well, I suppose you could just sit there on the bed for the rest of your life.' Alder's sarcastic voice echoed across Vita's mind and brought back memories of Alder comforting Vita after her parents died.

Vita sighed and smiled slightly as a few tears rolled down her face. She got up slowly and winced in pain as she moved. She moved herself slowly to the left of the bed, in the direction of the bathroom. It took her a while to get to the bathroom door and she had to lean against the wall along the way.

When she opened the door, she was awe-struck. The bathroom was as huge and as decorated as the bedroom she. There was a large garden tub and a separate huge closed in shower. The obvious features were in the bathroom as well, but there were two random doors in the bathroom. Vita opened the door to the right and saw a closet full of towels and soaps. She closed that door and opened the door to the left.

Her jaw dropped instantly when she saw where the second door led. The second door led to a giant walk in closet that was stocked full of various pieces of clothing. She walked in and looked at all of the various clothing items and grabbing a few here and there to look at them. At the end of the closet to the left, there was another door. She opened that door and realized that it opened back into the room she was in before. She closed that door and walked back into the closet.

Vita shook her head at everything around her; it was completely breath-taking. At the same time, Vita couldn't help but feel awkward in her new fancy surroundings and weary about what fates may befall her.

Vita walked back into the bathroom and shut the door to the closet behind her as she entered. Vita wasn't sure if she should take a shower or a bath. Her muscles screamed for her to soak in the bath, but she wasn't sure she felt comfortable enough to sit in the garden tub and leave herself that vulnerable.

'If those two were going to do anything, they would have already done it...' Vita thought to herself as she considered what she should do.

She walked over to the enclosed shower and looked in. There was a small bench to sit on and the shower head looked like it had multiple settings. She decided she would take a quick shower so she could try to figure out what kind of position she was in with Quincy and Kael.

She turned on the hot water and a little bit of the cold water and she undressed. She felt the temperature of the water on her hand to make sure it was not scalding hot. When the warm water beat onto her hand, a shiver rippled through her. The water temperature was perfect. She got in and closed the shower door behind her.

For a while she simply let the warm water run itself down her. The shower felt heavenly on her sore muscles and again, she found her mind wandering as the steam filled up the bathroom. Of course, her mind went to Alder again and she felt heart-wrenching sorrow come over her. She thought about all of the times when he was there for her.

'So what, you're going to feel sadness for the rest of your life, Vita?' Alder's voice echoed through her memories again and brought back a scene from when her parents had died.

'Alder...what else am I supposed to do?...' Vita responded in the memory.

'Well, I don't really think your parents would want you to cry your life away locked up in your bedroom.' Alder said and held Vita.

'It's just so much Alder...I don't know if I'm strong enough to go through all of this...' Vita responded.

'Well, you're not going to be alone. I am here with you.' Alder said with a smile.

"You're not here now..." Vita commented on her memory, interrupting it briefly.

'Even if I wasn't here, I would still want you to be happy.' Alder's response from the memory said. 'You of all people will never be alone regardless. It is completely impossible that you would ever be alone.'

'What if I just want to be left alone...' Vita whispered in response.

'You don't really want that...' Alder commented and put his hand on Vita's shoulder. 'You're going to be sad that your parents died, but you need to be happy with the time you got to spend with them...you have many happy memories with them.'

'I won't ever be able to make new memories with them though.' Vita sobbed.

'But, you will be able to create more happy memories in your own life though Vita...' Alder said softly. 'What's that phrase your mom always used to tell you?...When life gives you lemons?'

'Alder...' Vita said and wiped a stream of tears from her cheeks.

'You just have to make lemonade Vita...' Alder said.

'But...what if the lemons are too sour and there isn't enough sugar to sweeten it...' Vita responded darkly.

'Vita...sometimes, you can't just take what you have...sometimes, you have to get things by your own hands...for lemonade or whatever life throws at you...' Alder responded softly and patted Vita's arm.

The memory completely dissipated and Vita was left standing in her reality with steam filling the bathroom. Vita couldn't tell if she was crying or if the shower water was running down her face. She sighed deeply, inhaling a lungful of warm vapor into her lungs which worked to relax her body a bit.

She turned off the water and grabbed a towel from the linen closet she had explored briefly earlier. Mindlessly, she grabbed a pair of jean pants and a green flowery t-shirt. She grimaced slightly at the undergarments which were compacted into various drawers. There were so many colors and matching sets it looked like someone had vomited rainbow colored bras and panties into the drawers. Vita grabbed a polka dotted pair and shook her head as she closed the drawers.

She dressed quickly and wrapped her hair in another towel. She wandered around the bedroom as she let her hair dry. She walked over to the windows and pulled the heavy burgundy curtains apart. Her arms ached as she did so reminding her that she was still weak from the day before.

"Why am I so sore..." Vita thought to herself as the light from the window fell onto her face. "I think I went to attack the Black Knight...did I pass out in the process...maybe Quincy and Kael knocked me out."

Vita ran her hand along the window in an attempt to look for a lock so she could open the window, but she was surprised and confused when she saw that the windows were simply solid panes of glass embedded into the wood without any way to open them.

"Why...wouldn't someone want to open a window..." Vita said to herself in confusion. "Maybe they're afraid I will try to escape..."

Vita shook her head as she looked out the window. She wouldn't be surprised if they had removed the locks so she could get away, but she wished she could get some fresh air. She opened the remaining curtains to allow more light to fill the room. The lighted room made her mood lighten slightly.

She attempted to stretch her muscles, but they screamed waves of pain through her body as she moved. Eventually, she gave up stretching and began to look at some of the other things in the room. She moved to the huge Victorian vanity and ran her fingers over the fine gold filigree. She sat down on the fluffy vanity chair and looked at herself in the mirror.

Her eyes looked tired and puffy from all of the crying she had done. She looked deeply into her own green eyes and frowned slightly. She wished she had more answers for what she was supposed to do in her current predicament. She sighed and looked back into her eyes. This time she tried to smile at her reflection, but the image seemed force. She shook her head and walked away from the vanity.

To the near right of the vanity, there was a large burgundy curtain covering something hanging on the wall from the middle of the wall to the floor. Vita walked over to the curtain and examined it.

"It is a picture?..." Vita whispered to herself and reached out a hand to try to pull the curtain off of the item.

When she stuck out her hand, she felt a strong shock bristle the tip of her fingers. She grabbed her hand and jumped backwards. She watched the shock wave sparkle up and around the curtain and disappear.

"What on Earth was that..." Vita choked out as her heart pounded fiercely.

She backed away from the picture and returned to the bathroom. She shook her hair from the towel. It was still wet, but she could care less. She found a hair tie in the linen closet and threw her hair into a messy ball on top of her head. She didn't even use the mirror to arrange her hair since the sad image of herself in the mirror just reminded her of things she should be mourning.

She walked back into the bedroom. She wasn't sure how much time had passed since she had woken up, but she felt like she should go talk with Quincy and Kael to figure out exactly what they were planning. The thought of talking to them made Vita extremely nervous though. She paced around the room and made up various scenarios in her mind about what they might tell her. She tried to figure out how to react to the different scenarios.

Finally, she worked up the courage and walked over to the ornate doorway. She paused slightly at the door, but she managed to open the door with a shaky hand. Her heart raced furiously as she peeked her head out into the hallway. Her eyes widened as she took in the sights around her.

The hallway was a massive corridor with a giant staircase going upwards at the end to the left and a lengthy hallway to the right with a staircase downwards at the end of the hallway to the right. With all of the suits of armor and miscellaneous pieces of art, Vita felt like she was in a scene from Beauty and the Beast.

"Don't go into the West Wing I guess..." Vita mused to herself out loud as she walked closer to a piece of art hanging on the wall.

"We don't have a West Wing." Kael's voice broke the silence of the hallway.

"Oh..." Vita said both in response to Kael's comment and in reaction to being startled by his silent approach. "It...was just a joke about Beauty and the Beast..."

Vita watched as he closed the door to the room he had come from; she assumed that was his bedroom.

"Beauty and the Beast?" Kael asked with slight curiosity and walked towards Vita.

"Y-You don't know what it is?" Vita asked in equal confusion.

"No, it must be a human thing." Kael commented. "Does the girl get eaten by the beast then?"

"What? Of course not..." Vita said bewildered. "It's...a love story..."

"It's definitely a human thing." Kael said and chuckled slightly. "Come on. Quincy is making something for you downstairs."

Kael started walking to the right and Vita followed slowly behind him. Her muscles were still aching as she moved.

"Why would a beast not just eat a girl?" Kael asked nonchalantly without turning around.

Vita felt like he was trying to fill the awkward silence. She welcomed the chatter since it kept her mind from moving towards more unpleasant topics.

"Well, he was human." Vita responded. "He was just turned into a beast by an enchantress."

"An enchantress?" Kael asked with a slight smirk and looked at Vita sarcastically.

Vita looked at him confused and nodded. She didn't understand the apparent humor Kael found from the word.

"Oh humans..." Kael said and shook his head.

Vita and Kael were at the top of the staircase and Vita wasn't sure if her muscles would be able to handle the pressure of moving down stairs. She positioned herself next to the large wooden railing and placed one hand firmly on it. Her muscles were already aching but she couldn't help but wince when she went down a few stairs.

"Are you in a lot of pain, Vita?" Kael asked from a few stairs below where she was.

"Um...yea...it's okay though..." Vita said and looked away slightly embarrassed.

"Here, I'll help you." Kael said.

Before Vita could protest, Kael picked her up and was carrying her down the stairs. She couldn't help from blush from embarrassment. Vita noticed that he moved much faster while he was carrying her and she wondered if he had been walking slower so it was easier for her to follow him.

Vita expected Kael to put her down at the bottom of the staircase but he continued to carry her down another massive hallway. Vita could hear loud opera music resounding down the hallway as they walked.

"Um...uh...Kael..." Vita said blushing. "You can put me down..."

"You're in pain aren't you?" Kael asked looking down at her.

"Y-Yea..." Vita said slowly.

"Well, then I'll carry you." Kael said and turned his back to a set of double swinging doors so he could open them. "That had to be the first time you attacked anyone with magic so I can imagine the pain you're feeling is intense."

"The first time I attacked anyone?..." Vita asked looking up into Kael's eyes.

"Awe, well isn't that cute!" Quincy's enthusiastic voice interrupted Vita's question, but his voice was laced with apparent annoyance.

Kael carried Vita to a Kitchen stool and set her into it. Vita looked at Quincy as he stood behind a large kitchen counter grasping a wooden cooking spoon with one of his hands in an agitated manner. Vita noticed that Quincy was eyeing Kael with a lot of scrutiny.

"She's in pain from all of the magic she used, so I carried her down the stairs." Kael said flatly and walked over to a refrigerator.

"I guess so..." Quincy said still annoyed and sending death glares at Kael's back.

"S-So, I attacked someone?..." Vita interrupted their moment with her question.

The brothers both stopped what they were doing and looked at Vita in confusion.

"You don't remember?" Kael asked and set a glass bottle on the counter.

"No...Not really..." Vita said quietly.

"You don't remember attacking the Black Knight?" Quincy asked and leaned onto the counter casually and raised an eyebrow.

"I remember...running towards him angrily..." Vita responded. "After that, everything is a blur...Did he attack me?"

Kael's loud laughter startled Vita at first. She looked at him laughing and hunched over the counter. Vita looked at Quincy who had a fairly large smile on his face as well.

"Vita, you sent the Black Knight flying!" Quincy said laughing.

"You pulverized him! I don't even know if would have walked away from that attack." Kael said still chuckling.

"We were worried when you ran at him, but then when we saw you hit him with that attack...phew..." Quincy said and shook his head.

"Did I...is he dead then?..." Vita asked softly.

She wasn't sure if it would be good that he was dead because that would mean that she had killed someone. At the same time, part of her wished the man who had killed Alder had died in return as due process.

"No, I doubt it, but you definitely put up a good show against him." Quincy said in a praising manner.

"It was very impressive." Kael nodded and took a drink from the bottle he had pulled from the refrigerator.

Vita felt slightly depressed by the whole of the conversation. She wasn't able to destroy the evil which had taken her friend from her and she was still stuck in a precarious mystery situation which she knew she needed to be ready for since she wasn't sure what was going to happen.

"Quincy, why don't you pour Vita some of the curarent you made." Kael interjected into the awkward silence.

"Wonderful idea!" Quincy said and poured some greenish blue liquid into a glass cup. "This will make you fill tip top in no time, my dear!"

Vita looked at the glass Quincy set in front of her, but she didn't make eye contact with either of the brothers. She was letting the full effect of the depression and loss take hold of her.

"Thank you..." She said quietly.

An awkward silence ensued. Vita wasn't sure what they expected from her. She barely knew them and she doubted they would even have much in common to talk about. The only things they did have to talk about was the situation at hand, but Vita was afraid to approach that subject matter either.

"Vita, there was nothing we could do and there is definitely nothing we can do now for your dead friend." Quincy's voice killed the silence.

Vita didn't respond. She simply ran one of her fingers down the side of the glass which had been put in front of her.

"What do you plan to do, Vita?" Kael's voice asked flatly.

"I..." Vita wasn't even sure what to respond with.

"That's not an answer..." Kael said and came over to where she was sitting.

In an instant, Kael shifted Vita's chair around so she was facing him and he pressed his hands onto the counter on either side of Vita, pinning her to her spot. Vita looked up into his face startled by the sudden movement. Kael was leaning over her and looking into her eyes sternly.

"Kael-" Quincy started but was cut off.

"What do you plan to do, Vita? Sit around and sulk your life away?" Kael asked calmly but meaningfully.

Vita was startled by his question. It was so similar to what Alder had said to her when her parents had died.

"Well?" Kael asked and kept his eyes on Vita's eyes.

"I don't know what I'm supposed to do!" Vita responded and a few tears rolled down her face. "I've been cast into circumstances which are completely out of my control!"

"You can't go back to the things you left behind." Kael said softly but with strength of decision. "This is the path that has been laid out for you Vita. You can either waste your days away being miserable or you can make the best of what has been _cast_ in front of you!"

Vita's heart froze. Her eyes widened at Kael's words and she inhaled sharply.

"It's like what they say!" Quincy's perky voice interjected into the serious moment. "When life gives ya lemons, you make yourself some lemonade!"

A few tears ran down Vita's face and various memories ran through her mind as comforting words from past situations were presenting themselves in new forms.

"What...What if the lemons are too bitter and there isn't enough sugar..." Vita asked quietly and stared down at the floor.

"Well," Kael began and stood upright in front of Vita. "You go get your own sugar and make it however you want."

Vita's breathing stopped for a few moments as she took in what was going on. She wondered if they were able to read her thoughts or memories and if they were just repeating those thoughts or memories to make her feel better. As she looked into Kael's face, she knew he meant what he was saying.

"While you're adding things to your lemonade, you may as well add some vodka!" Quincy said enthusiastically. "Then you'll have party time!"

Vita and Kael both looked at Quincy and just shook their heads.

"Your such a moron..." Kael said flatly and walked back over to his drink.

"Oh yea? Well you would know!" Quincy responded angrily.

"Yea, I would because I have been around you so long." Kael responded nonchalantly.

"Why you..." Quincy growled playfully with a light smirk on his lips.

It made Vita feel a little better to see the two brothers fighting playfully. She reached out and grabbed the glass of greenish blue liquid and pulled it towards her. She brought it to her lips and sipped it slightly. Instantly, she reacted to the taste of the liquid.

"Ugh! That is awful!" She said involuntarily and waved her hands and kicked her legs slightly.

Echoing laughter made her stop and look at Quincy and Kael. The two were laughing so hard a few tears were rolling down their faces. Vita blushed instantly and looked down.

"Oh my...how adorable..." Quincy said softly.

"Things are going to be interesting." Kael said still laughing slightly.

"I'm sorry, it just tastes so awful..." Vita said quietly and continued to stare at the ground.

"Here." Quincy said and grabbed a small white dish.

Instead of passing the dish over the counter, he walked around and stood right next to Vita. He rested one of his arms on the back of her chair and placed the white dish in front of her with his other hand. Vita felt that it was awkward that he came that close to her and was still standing there.

"It's sugar, Vita." Quincy said in a smooth voice. "I will give you all the sugar you will ever need."

Vita shook her head and laughed slightly.

"That was so lame..." Kael commented from the other side of the counter.

"You're just jealous!" Quincy said and flipped the feather strand behind his ear as he walked back around the counter.

Quincy and Kael argued playfully back and forth and Vita just sat there smiling.

'When you don't have anything else...' Vita thought to herself. 'You get it by your own hands, right Alder?...'

Vita put some sugar into the drink and stirred the liquid. She took another sip and frowned slightly.

"Still that bad?" Kael asked amused.

"It's..." Vita said and looked up at them. "It's bearable."

"Well, for now it's bearable then." Quincy responded. "That's much better than awful!"

The two brothers smiled at Vita from across the counter with knowing smiles. Vita smiled back and nodded. There was hidden meaning behind the situation and Vita was well aware of it as the three of them sat in the kitchen taking in the moment.

"Vita, when you're ready, we need to talk to you about your awakening." Quincy said meaningfully.

Vita looked at the two of them with confusion. She had no idea what an awakening would be. She knew she was going to be learning what is was quickly, though. Whether she was ready to embrace this world or not, she knew the wizardly world she had entered was about to engulf her.

1 The Palace of Versailles is a large and ornate castle in Ile-de-France. It was built by Louis XIV.


End file.
